Job Well Done
by AllUNeedIsFaith
Summary: One dark night Angel is out fighting and he comes across a demon who says he can secure his soul. Then things start to fall into place and the only thing left is to say... Job well done. Okay, really bad summary please r&r... Promise the story's better!
1. Chapter 1: Squished Pavement Goo

Chapter 1

A terrified young man ran for his life. A dark figure with a leather coat billowing behind him made pursuit and launched forward to tackle the shorter figure. The shorter of the two landed hard on the alleyway's disgusting floor and turned around. The tall figure looked at him before winding his fist up for a one way journey to the young man's face. The young man who held his hands up in defence.

"No, wait! I can help you make your soul permanent!" The tall dark figure's fist paused on its journey downwards to crack the man's skull beneath it. Or should I say demon. A demon that looked like a man. The demon knew that he'd pushed the right button and he might actually not get pummelled tonight. As much as he enjoyed becoming part of the pavement. Oh well, there was always tomorrow.

The demon peeked through his fingers and looked up at the dark figure who was now looking at him with a mixture of hostility, dislike and a little bit of curiosity. The demon removed his hand and tried one of his 'charming' grins. He shrugged in, what he hoped was, a nonchalant fashion

"Just because you know about me doesn't make you special. So does everyone else in this entire town."

"But does everyone know that a couple of years ago or so you got the oracles to turn back time? I understand you had quite the time of your undead life. If I remember correctly, and I always do, your little firecracker said," The demon continued in a voice that was Buffy's teary one,

"I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget."

The tall dark figure in front of him drew his fist back was about to hit the demon again when the demon adopted another voice.

"Got a little mor'n you bargained for, eh Bud? The good fight, yeah?" The figure froze as he recognised the voice immediately. And the accent. That Irish accent from a little Irish man. Doyle.

"You've lost your way, strayed from your path. But you gotta hop right back on that horse Angelcakes." The demon now spoke with Lorne's voice.

This was too much for the dark figure who felt emotion overtake him and just fled into the night. Thankful for the way that it just swallowed him up.

"Wait! Angel! Do you want me to help you?" Angel stopped and turned around, his annoyed expression clear on his scarred face. A large scar now ran down his handsome features, cutting diagonally across the left side of his dark face. It was a scar that had been so deep that even his vamp healing hadn't been able to heal it all, at least not yet. It was now a faint, but still visible, red line from his left cheekbone to the top of his lip. Of course when it had been inflicted it almost tore his face in half, but that's another story.

"Why? It's not as if the help you offer me will make any of it better. Didn't you hear? After the big fight with the senior partners I was the only one who left it reasonably sane. Connor and Wesley died, Gunn is now a vegetable in a hospital, Fred (see AN) disappeared, Lorne…well he said he was done. Who else is there?"

"Cordy. You remember her don't you?"

"She's dead." Angel sat down on the floor of the side of the alley, back resting against the wall. The demon joined him with a poignant expression on his face.

"Look I'm not going to pretend that it wasn't pretty heart wrenching to go through your _entire_ life story. And I commend you, the things you've done…" Angel gave him a look, clearly he was thinking of his earlier stage in life. The demon corrected himself.

"I mean the last years of your life, the recent ones. For you it's been a long and tiring road. I'm here to put in some of that 'reward' back in 'unrewarding'." Angel looked at him with an unbelieving smirk on his face.

"So you're telling me that you're a demon that is going to secure my soul."

"Demon is such a harsh word." The demon said with a faint smile that attempted to lift the mood unsuccessfully.

"It's one that applies here." The demon showed his palms in a motion of surrender.

"Okay, okay. But the outside isn't all that counts. You've proven that. A vampire who helps and aids. Why is it so hard to believe that some other of your kind can do the same?" Angel was speechless at this and chose to remain so.

"You're not the only special one here Angel." The demon said with a tone that made Angel think that this was a past hurt. Good.

"So what, are you working for the Powers?" Angel's sarcasm would've hurt someone inside twelve inches of steel emotional walls. And this demon barely had a tinfoil walls. He just responded with a brave smile and continued to wear his heart on his sleeve.

"Well I don't like to spread it. It generally makes demons more willing to tear my heart out." The small amount of sarcasm on the end was about as much as he would throw back at Angel.

"And just listening to you talk is making me want to tear it out, whether or not you have a soul and whether or not you're working for the Powers." The demon's smile faltered and his eyes almost reverted to a puppy dogs.

"Buffy's dead." (See AN) Angel said after a minute's awkward silence.

"I know, I'm sorry."

"Then why did you…"

"Remind you?"

"Yeah. Use her voice? Bring up the hurt?"

"Because you were going to kill me and, in the process, ruin your chances of getting a permanent soul."

"So it's all for my own good."

"I also did it because she isn't the woman you're hung up over. You're hung up over Cordy." Angel looked at the demon with pain in his eyes and the demon flinched. Angel waited for a few seconds before deciding that changing the subject would be the best path.

"So why are you giving me an anchor for my soul?"

"Well the Powers reckon that you should be paid half of your humanity. Just for your great work."

"Great work that I haven't finished."

"That's why you're getting half. A sort of… Hope giver. To help you continue on and march through the days that make it so terrible for you."

"You don't know what it's like. To have to suffer like I have. I've suffered through everything."

"I know," The demon looked at Angel with an understanding expression on his face.

"I don't think you understand. When I went through your life story," The demon underlined the next point in mid air, "I went through your life story. Sure they cut out most of the massacres and some of the gruesome stuff you did as Angelus but I went through all the important stuff. The last years, as Angel with a soul, slaying with Buffy in Sunnydale and then here in L.A., I went through all of that. Feeling what you were feeling, doing what you were doing. Brooding like you did, oh so very much."

Angel gave him a look and the demon showed an apologetic look before continuing.

"You have to understand that I understand. Everything. You can even quiz me." Even Angel couldn't help the twitch that showed the grin about to happen that no one could stop. Even the past months that had been spent in the alleyways slaying vampires and demons.

"So are you my link to the Powers now?" The demon looked at him with a serious expression and replied simply.

"Yeah. But I gotta do the soul anchoring thing before they kill me for incompetency and put in some other dumbass demon who has no clue what he's doing." A quick, harsh and slightly worried expression from the vampire caused him to launch into babble mode.

"I mean not that I'm a dumbass demon who has no clue what he's doing, I'm just saying that the other demon they'd send in would be a dumbass demon who has no clue what he's doing. Unlike me. Of course I know exactly what I'm doing and, lucky for you, I'm no dumbass. After all if I was, then I would not be doing this because if I didn't know what I was doing then I wouldn't even allow myself here. Because I've been through all of your troubles and I know that another pain and trouble in your life is so unneeded at the moment. I mean the stuff you've gone through is enough already. Another headache is not needed. And neither is a babbling demon who should be now doing his duty or he'll get fired and…"

Angel vamped and the demon stopped babbling.

"Do it already."

"Alright, alright. No need to…" Angel growled at him and he finished the sentence off in a whimpering tone which was more of a question than the end of a sentence, "snap?"

Angel vamped out. The demon took a deep breath and then put his pointer and middle finger on Angel's temples. The demon closed his eyes as he concentrated.

"Now just relax. Close your eyes. Think of the ocean. The beach." Angel's eyes burst open and knocked aside the demon's hands. The demon opened his eyes in shock at the sudden disconnection.

"I don't like the beach. I get set on fire at the beach." Angel growled and the demon's eyes widened.

"Okay, okay. Let's try this again shall we?"

"How do I know that you work for the Powers?" The demon paused before answering.

"If I wasn't working for the Powers, let's say that I were to use this to kill you, would you really care? Would your really care if this entire alley was blown to smithereens? With you and I in it?" Angel didn't respond and the demon said,

"Of course not. Look, I have no way of proving it to you, only my knowledge of your past. But you know that you secretly hoped that the answer to the question is that I don't work for them. That I'm here to kill you. At least then you would relax and let me do my work. But I do work for them and I know that you couldn't really care if I killed you because to you there's no way to go but down. The Angel Investigations days are over and gravity's pulling you back down to earth mate. At the rate you're going the end result will not be pretty. I just need you to trust me when I say that I'm giving you a parachute here. Don't become squished pavement goo. Trust me."

"It hasn't been Angel Investigations for so long." Angel said, his only come back to the demon's short speech.

"It still was to you. Even in Wolfram and Hart. It was the same old thing. Fighting demons with your friends, only it was more of a 'Let's throw money at the problem' solution instead of a 'Let's bash their heads in' solution. Took you a while to get used to it huh? Especially since there was this nagging feeling that you were the only one left. This feeling that everyone from the original team was gone. Everyone except for you. Doyle had died in a blaze of hero glory and Cordy was murdered by a 'higher being'. You got lonely didn't you? In your nice penthouse apartment and the many different cars that they gave you. Just knowing that you're the last one left standing. Now more than ever. I went through all that with you. I felt the loathing and hate that you felt for yourself. You don't have to anymore. You may have strayed far from the path but the path has managed to find you. Take it. Trust me."

Angel looked into the demon's eyes and then nodded slowly and deliberately. The demon smiled and returned his fingers to Angel's temples, once again closing his eyes, but this time Angel was visibly tense. Obviously his want for life had returned. And his fear of what the demon would do in his head had finally arrived.

"Relax. Close your eyes. Think of a nice dark night. The moon is full. You're in a beautiful garden, in full view of the moon. The Jasmine has just started to bloom and you can smell the beautiful scent of it in the air. You are at complete peace." Angel actually relaxed at this and the demon began the process.

AN: Alright, in this story it's an AU. Obviously. Anyway. Buffy is dead in this story, Illyria never came to Angel (sorry!), Fred just had to leave for an unknown reason to the gang and Fred and Wesley never got together (once again sorry!).


	2. Chapter 2: Brunette, goes by the name of

Chapter 2

"This is going to be harder than I thought." The demon said as he removed his fingers from Angel's temples and opened his eyes. Angel opened his eyes and asked,

"Why? What's wrong?" The demon looked at him and hesitated before replying. Angel threw him a menacing look and this seemed to help the demon to make up his mind. Well, not make up his mind as much as get bullied into replying.

"What you've been doing lately, the fighting the guilty instead of the defending the innocent, it's done more than just kill a lot of the demons in L.A."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Angel asked, his impatience showing so obviously that even the person who needed almost everything pointed out could feel it.

"Remember how I said that you'd strayed from your path?" Angel grunted in reply and the demon continued on.

"Well that means that you're going to have to work hard to get back on."

"I thought you said the path had found me." Angel's glare went into a more ominous mode. And the demon had a feeling that this was something he had to get used to.

"It has, but getting back onto it is still going to be a lot of hard work. You're trying to get rid of all the evil in this world. You know that that isn't possible. It's a heroic goal to be sure, but an impossible one. This world is made up of good and bad. If someone was to wipe out all the bad, as you are trying to do then it would be heaven. Just as if someone was to wipe out all of the good, then it would be hell. There has to be a balance and if you come close to destroying that balance then even the Powers will be out to kill you. Are you willing to go through the hard work to secure your soul? Are you willing to go off that self-destruct path and onto your destiny?" Angel hesitated. Just like the demon knew he would. The demon sighed and then said,

"I know you need to think about this. You have no reason for a soul at the moment, only the body which houses it. Your soul is buried deep inside of you and to actually get to it to anchor it is going to take a lot of work. And a lot of will." The demon looked into Angel's eyes when he said the last sentence. Angel still didn't say anything. The demon then got up from the alley floor and stretched in a cat-like gesture. He seemed to want to change the mood of the moment. Besides he was a little behind schedule.

"I'm hungry. Let's go get some pancakes." Angel looked up at him in a death stare. The demon made the 'surrender' move again. Not the last time he would, he could tell and he didn't need the Powers to tell him that either. Call it a sixth sense. Or a seventh in his case. And possibly a eighth depending how one of this other one panned out… But anyway.

"I'm just hungry is all." Angel grunted, not exactly wanting to get up. The demon held his arm out as a courtesy but Angel ignored it and got up by himself. The demon knew he wouldn't take it. Especially as both of them knew that the demon wasn't strong enough to help Angel up. The two then walked out of the alley.

"Why pancakes?" Angel asked quietly. The demon smiled and asked,

"I'm sorry did you just ask a non threatening question?" After a very threatening look from Angel the demon continued.

"Alright, well I just like eating pancakes at all times of the day. Even at eleven o'clock at night. Besides your destiny lies ahead." The demon stopped and Angel looked at the fluorescent lights and gave the demon a cynical look.

"My destiny lies in 'Joe's'?" The demon shrugged light heartedly.

"Sure it does." After another disparaging look the demon decided to elaborate.

"Well, I can't exactly explain why it lies in Joe's. It'll become apparent in a moment." Well okay, so that isn't really that elaborative but you know how vague these Powers links are. The demon pushed his way through the door and Angel was left there to have an inquisitive look left on his face. He gave the red fluorescent light a death look, one which was really for the demon.

"I think I like it better when they're evil." Angel muttered to himself, obviously talking about the aforesaid demon. He grunted in annoyance and followed the (aforesaid) demon by pushing his way into the caravan (turned diner).

Angel spotted the demon at one of the tables along the wall. He was ordering from a waitress. As Angel took a seat across from him the waitress' features lit up and she asked in a shy voice,

"Can I get you anything sir?" The demon looked on in wonder as Angel completely ignored the sudden spell that he'd managed to conjure over the pretty, young waitress. It wasn't as if the waitress hadn't called the demon 'sir'. He had a feeling that this was what happened to Angel regularly, hence the ignorance. Angel just replied with a simple,

"No, I'm okay thanks." Angel gave her a smile and the demon was surprised that she didn't just faint there and then. She seemed to float back to behind the counter. Maybe she was into the whole scar across the cheek thing. Maybe she liked pirates or something. The demon watched her and shook his head. Some people.

Eventually the waitress came back with a pile of pancakes smothered in maple syrup and a dollop of cream. She completely ignored the demon as she gave them to him, her sole attention on Angel. The demon then tucked a serviette into his shirt, picked up some utensils and proceeded to 'dig in'. Angel winced as he looked at the feeding frenzy in front of him.

"So exactly how does my destiny lie here?" Angel asked as he shifted around to attempt to comfort himself on the plastic seat he was sitting on that seemed nice and soft until you actually sat down in them. The demon stopped his frenzied eating for a second to say, with an extremely full mouth,

"Mmmph mm mph mph mm. (In English that is 'You'll see in a sec.', not that Angel knows that)" Angel had a perplexed look on his face but it didn't last too long. When the demon finished and he swallowed it all, just before the look disappeared, there was a massive crash behind Angel. That was what had caused the look to vanish. Angel got up and whirled around quickly. It was the impending sound of violence and that certainly didn't make Angel perplexed.

A nasty looking demon had just crashed through the door of the diner and was followed by a person who just simply walked through the damaged door, as if it was something they did everyday, and went over to the demon. The person lifted up its head and slit its throat with a big nasty looking knife and without a second thought. Something else that they supposedly did on a regular basis.

Angel saw this and felt his heart skip as he hoped that he was right when he guessed who it was. He felt a lump build in his throat as he saw the person straighten up and take a brief look around. Their eyes met and as Angel looked into the brown eyes and Angel knew that he would do anything to get his soul 'anchored'. And he knew that this, meeting this person, seeing this person, was the part of his destiny that the demon had talked about.

Angel looked into the eyes of the person in front of him and felt the time slow. Unknowingly to him, his eyes went to the puppy dog mode like they did around this person many times. However he was able to notice the demon rise from behind them, but the person didn't notice. The demon had the knife in his hand and was about to slice across the person's back.

With a loud and long shout (NOOO!) he launched into his 'superman' position (think back to Season 1 the episode 'Sanctuary' when Angel launches at the helicopter) and tackled the demon to the floor and then straddled him. He punched the demon several times before grabbing the knife and completely decapitating the demon beneath him.

He got up and looked at the person he'd just saved. And when I say looked I mean really really looked. As the person looked up into his eyes he felt every single feeling, no matter how large or little, come flooding back into him.

As he looked into those brown eyes he had only one word that he was able to say at that time. One word that his mind would let him say. One word that he was able to form with his mouth which seemed paralysed. One word which he remembered how to say. One word which always made him light up when someone else said it.

One name. The name of the person from the 'original' team. Of course it was… Have you guessed it yet? Come on, I've made it so obvious. Okay, here we go, I'm going to reveal the person that's getting Angel back on the Path. Okay I promise not to drag this out too much longer. Just one more hint, she's the first and only brunette he's ever loved. Okay, that totally gave it away. The person is, of course…

"Cordelia."


	3. Chapter 3: Black Void

Chapter 3

AN: This chapter's going to explain everything about Cordy being back and all.

Cordelia sat on the Chair. She traced patterns onto the bottom of the Chair and couldn't help but grip tightly onto this after a few seconds of tracing and she knew, even without looking, that her knuckles had turned white and where probably going to keep being white. She stared out into the black void and couldn't help but feel as if she was being judged. In a way she was, she was always being judged. They couldn't help but judge you. After all it was what they did.

They. Them. The Powers. The last time she'd been in this chair was when they were telling her that she could help Angel one last time back in Wolfram and Hart. It had been an important occasion hence the invitation to the Chair. Hardly anyone ever got to even see the Chair. It was a big thing to get an invitation once let alone twice. She was always known as a favourite. Even more than Doyle. And Doyle was pretty high up on the Powers favourites list. Top Ten if anyone had bothered to make a list of the Most Loved Messengers/Guides. Right up there with Whistler. Funny how the guides who helped Angel were always favourite to the Powers. He must be a soft spot or something.

Anyway, they didn't even invite her to the Chair when they told her that she was to be a higher power. Except that this time when she was to be a higher power it was for real. And she had been. Ever since she got back from Wolfram and Hart they'd promoted her for her good work. Also for the giving Angel the visions without meaning to. Not that they didn't know that she hadn't meant to. It was more for the sake of the kiss rather than the sake of passing the visions on.

She shifted slightly in the chair and looked around the black void. It was weird. White was usually meant to be all good and black was bad but it was the opposite when it came to links to higher powers. The White Room was the link to the 'evil' senior partners and the Chair in the Black Void was the link to the 'good' Powers That Be.

But then if there was one thing that Cordy had learned in all of her combined years of Sunnydale, LA and working as a higher power it was that nothing was as black and white as everyone thought. It was all just a different shade of grey. At times the senior partners had been known to do things that weren't so typically 'evil' and the Powers had been known to do things that weren't so typically 'good'. Not naming either of these not so typically would probably be best for both parties, so no naming.

Okay, so it was less of a black void and more of an extremely shadowy room in which the Chair was the central thing. They just called it the Black Void instead of the Shadowy Room because the Black Void was somewhat scarier. She looked around for a light source and then realised that it was actually her that was the light source. Well, she was all glowy but being a light source in an otherwise dark room was kinda stretching the 'weird' bounds.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Cor. How you been?" Doyle stepped out of the shadows and Cordelia smiled at the vision of her friend. The only one who was more favoured than her. Doyle was the conduit between the Powers and the higher beings so you can't really get more favoured than that.

"Good, how about you? Being a link to the Powers working out for you Doyle?" Cordy asked and Doyle grinned and walked towards her.

"It's been good. We get good dental." Doyle said and Cordelia laughed half heartedly and both of them knew it.

"So... Down to business then?" Cordy asked and Doyle nodded and looked slightly like he was being dragged kicking and screaming into it.

"So you're probably wondering why you're here an' all." Doyle said and Cordy nodded with a 'Hey can you blame me' look on her face. Doyle sighed and continued, "Alright. Well let's start with: You're lookin' good." Cordelia shot him a dirty which then turned into a big grin after a second or so. Then she attempted to harness the grin and get back to business. More specifically the business of why she was here.

"Come on Doyle, spill it." Doyle grimaced and continued to 'spill' it.

"Okay, okay. No need to get catty. The reason you're here for the second time is cos the Powers are giving you a chance." Doyle paused and Cordy filled the silence with curiosity.

"A chance? A chance to do what?"

"A second chance at life. A chance to help Angel..." Doyle said in an important voice and then dropped it to complete the sentence, "Again." Cordelia's eyebrows went up at the anticlimactic last word and she shot Doyle a look.

"What do you mean?" Cordelia asked straightforwardly but Doyle smiled a little half smile that made her think it wasn't such a straightforward question. But that thought disappeared as he answered her and her mind began spinning. She felt as if she'd become the girl in 'The Exorcist' what with the spinning of the head and the feeling crazy.

"Alright I'll break this down for you." Doyle rubbed his hands together and grabbed a chair out of thin air. He then sat down on it so that he was facing Cordy sitting on the Chair. He continued, "So you have been called here to get a choice of two things that can happen. One of the choices is that when I finish explaining here you're going to be sent back to L.A. As a human, as a normal person.

"Things will be a little, well, altered for your return. In the end you probably won't even remember it after a while. You would've never died, just left for New York to try your hand at helping the helpless there. That kiss before you left... It still transferred the visions to Angel so you moved to the big apple with only your big heart and the want to do good.

"And you've returned cos of some reason that you can make up. You missed the LA nightlife, you missed sunny California or you missed Angel. Any one of'm'll do."

"You're sending me back to Earth?" Cordy asked, clearly stuck on the subject.

"Mm, yeah. Powers don't just see the impending disaster, they see potential for tying up loose ends."

"I'm a loose end now?" Cordelia asked incredulously. Then Doyle attempted to cover up his slip of wrong usage of words.

"Well, not so much a loose end as a solution to a complex problem." Doyle looked at Cordy hoping that she bought this or at least was nice enough to pretend that she bought it.

"Complex?" Cordy seemed to contemplate the meaning of the word, "Huh. So do I get overtime?" Doyle grinned at Cordy's response, knowing that all was forgiven.

"Now there's the Cordy we know an' love." Cordy smiled widely and Doyle continued to just smile gently at her.

"You always used to lighten up a room when you entered it," Doyle looked around pointedly at the fact that she was lighting one up at the moment, only literally, "Now everyone else c'n see it too." Cordy just looked at him with sympathy at his longing for her, knowing nothing could be done about their situation, and he grimaced at her.

"Ah well, wit me playin' the part of the ghostly conduit not much I can do about it, eh?"

"I'm sorry." Cordy said softly and Doyle shook his head,

"Now, no sympathy should be comin' from your direction. I've seen what's going to happen if you choose to go, y'know, down dere," Doyle pointed to the floor, "And I'm cool with it, y'know."

"Doyle I-"

"If an apology's about to come out of that mouth then don't." Doyle looked Cordy straight in the eye, "I done nothin' to deserve it. You're gonna make him happy." Then realising the implications of mixing Angel and happy he added quickly, "I mean not perfectly happy. Just... very happy. An' he deserves it, y'know. Quoting a certain half demon we're 'putting the reward back in unrewarding'. I'm not sayin' you're not gonna make him perfectly happy," That caused alarm in Cordelia, and for good reason, but this was quelled when Doyle continued on cryptically, "I mean. You will. When he won't go all psycho über vamp killer on you the morning after. I'm getting ahead of myself. As I said before you have a choice. To go down to earth, become human, forget about your time as a higher being and help Angel. Or not to. To just keep on being a higher power."

"What kind of choice is that Doyle?" Cordy blew up in Doyle's face and he withdrew back on the chair and gave her a puppy dog look.

"Cordy, it's your choice." He said, hurt at her explosion.

"No, it's not Doyle. It's never my choice. The Powers make it seem as if it is by giving me two options. But they always know what I'm going to choose."

"That's because you always make the right choice." Doyle said, arguing on behalf of the Powers. Cordy snorted and said sarcastically,

"Yea right, I make great choices. Let's talk about them shall we. Choosing to become a higher power so I could get body hijacked by evil psycho happy lady." Cordy said packing it chockablock with pure sarcastic goodness. Things that make you go 'Mmm'.

"That was... Different." Doyle finished knowing just how it sounded.

"Right different." Cordy said with a look on her face and continued in a similar fashion, "Cos this time they didn't see it coming. Just like all those other times they didn't see it coming. Do they ever see it coming?" Cordy asked and Doyle just looked at her with an expression that made her wish she hadn't said it.

"You should know it the most that they do see things coming. Important things. Besides regardin' the whole evil psycho happy lady thing there where spies and infiltrators. Whom which we have fired in the most literal sense possible around here."

"I know Doyle." Cordy sighed heavily and continued, "It's just... You gave up your chance at love to be a hero so I tried it too. I figured that that was the way to go. You know heroism and all that."

"We're givin' you back your life Cor so dun worry bout the past so much. An' besides you dun need one grand gesture to be a hero. Livin' life is a heroic act within itself. So no givin' up love for the sake o' bein' a hero. Okay?" Cordy smiled at Doyle and said softly,

"Okay." Doyle put his hand to her head and was about to do what he was about to do and then took it away. He looked at her while appearing to be listening to something else. Then he actually looked at her, seeing her properly and relayed the message.

"The Powers are going to allow you to bring someone with you. Anyone you want. Whether they're dead or not. Or even," Doyle paused and then looked at Cordelia, wanting the next suggestion to really get through, "Left for a reason no one but you an' me knows."

"Fred." Cordy said quietly to herself, looking off into space, and Doyle nodded gently. Cordy looked up at Doyle and said, more firmly and actually directed at him, "Fred, I want Fred to come back with me." Doyle smiled at her and stood up, the chair he was sitting on disappearing. He bowed ever so slightly and then said,

"It's done."

Then came the blinding whiteness.


	4. Chapter 4: Hotel Room

Chapter 4

They were back at Cordelia's hotel after her invitation. She'd changed quite a bit. She had the eyes of both of the men, well vampire and demon, behind her. But her attention was solely on Angel, apart from the first curious glance that she shot the demon. He just shot a smile back at the time, still a little shocked about the whole fighting. Sure he'd experienced it before but in real life it seemed more, well, real.

Anyway, they were now sitting down at this big table that was included in her suite. Yes, suite. Apparently done quite a bit of good and she'd made quite a bit of money with her new agency. Emphasis on the made quite a bit of money bit. Of course her charging crazy prices had nothing to do with it. Yeah, whatever. Anyway, the sitting arrangement was Cordy sitting on one side of the table and Angel sitting on the other. The demon had inconspicuously (okay, not really) dragged another chair next to Angel, whilst being glared at by Angel himself. The demon wasn't exactly sure if it was from the noise or the fact that he was joining them or that he was choosing to sit next to Angel. He just chose to grimace and sit down, and hope that Angel didn't have an axe handy. He had seen what Angel had done in Wolfram & Hart, remember.

"So what's with the scar, not trying out a life as a pirate I hope?" Cordelia said with a smile and weak laugh. Angel shifted around uncomfortably. He seemed not to want to sit down properly, at least not till Cordy did. She was also not completely at ease.

"Uh no, dragon talons. They cut deep."

"Oh." Cordelia said and then looked to the side of Angel instead of at him. The demon looked at the both of them and decided to get the ball rolling, in a sense. Something that no one had been able to do in previous Angel and Cordelia history. Usually Cordelia broke the silence, but she had changed.

"So. How are you Cordelia? Well I hope." Cordy looked at the demon.

"Yeah, I'm actually oh-k…Who are you?" Cordy cut off her own sentence because the curiosity was back and in full power. The demon looked at her 'innocently'. He pointed to himself.

"Who? Me?" He asked with an 'I don't know what's going on' expression on his face. Cordelia nodded and the demon continued on with a casual demeanour. Well as casual as he could muster. Something he'd gotten without meaning to while he'd experienced from all of those people's lives that he'd lived was that truth was always the best way out. And this was not something he learned voluntarily.

"Well, that's a nice surprise, you know as a certain someone else didn't exactly care to find out," The demon shot Angel the first bad look he'd ever given him, not that the look he gave him was even that threatening, "My name is Russet. Russ for short. I'm a demon, well half-demon. Demon comes from my father's side."

"Really?" Cordelia asked, she was slightly shocked. Or more than slightly shocked. After all Russet didn't even look like a demon, he had spiky brown hair with a dash of red colouring throughout and brown eyes, with just a touch of yellow, that were a tiny bit bigger than average. He was wearing dark jeans and a dark button up t-shirt. He looked a bit like a puppy dog with big brown eyes but perfectly humanoid. After a second of shockedness she continued,

"Well, Russ, who around here isn't half-demon anyways?" The demon smiled. It was a nice smile. One with white teeth and a calming demeanour that reminded Cordelia of the Groosalugg. Sure he didn't have the gorgeous big blue eyes but he was nice enough.

"I'm able to imitate people, to change my body to duplicate someone else's. Just by touching someone I can know their whole life. I work for the Powers That Be, I was sent here to guide Angel. To secure his soul. Or at least help him so that he is ready for me to do this. This power, the power of being able to reach into someone's soul and remove or put in place, or secure it, was given to me by the Powers. For one purpose only. Helping Angel get back on the path and continuing on it."

Cordelia's attention soon returned to Angel. (As we all knew it would.)

"Securing his soul?" Both of the men knew the tone of Cordy's voice was hopeful and they both knew the reasons, actually the one reason. Okay so they aren't men, they're both part demon or full demon or whatever, but you know what I mean. The whole understanding of what Cordy really meant is what matters.

"Yeah, for good." Russ responded, because Angel was too busy communicating it with his eyes to Cordelia. This was obviously going to be the same for the future too. Angel being the action guy and Russ the talking guy. Except for when the fights begin, because everyone knows that Angel loves throwing insults at the big bads. At least the three people sitting there all knew that. The two men (demon's, half-demon's, whatever) sitting there knew that even more, they'd both lived it (to some extent).

"Wow. And you're saying the Powers have sent you." Although Cordy was obviously talking to Russ her eyes were lost in Angel's brown brooding pools that he called eyes. Russ nodded.

"Yeah, the Powers." Russ replied.

"Oh." Cordelia said. It was obvious she wanted to launch across the table and secure her lips on Angel's.

"Yeah, oh." Russ replied again. But his attempt to get some attention didn't work, Cordy's eyes were still very lost in Angel's.

"Okay, you two lovebirds, I'm just going to…" When Cordy's eyes flickered to Russ' as he failed to finish the sentence she saw him get thrown across the room by an invisible force. He hit the wall and collapsed onto the floor. Cordy ran over to him and Angel stood up. He felt something behind him and he turned his head slightly.

There, standing in all its glory, was a big bad. It had broken through the back glass door from the balcony. Time for Angel to get all quippy with the phrases. Not that quippiness was exactly on his mind at the moment. More like Cordelia, the securing of the soul and the following events. Plus how Russ was uncomfortably getting closer and closer to resembling Doyle in the whole half-demon thing and he reminded him of Doyle at times. In fact, he reminded him of many people, Lorne, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, even Cordelia.

Russ lifted his head and Cordelia asked,

"Are you okay?" Russ saw past Cordy and to Angel who was now looking at the big bad with an annoyed expression. He pointed to Angel and said,

"Help, him." Cordy saw Angel and then turned back to Russ. She gave him an apologetic expression and then left his side to get an axe from her bag and threw it to Angel after yelling his name. Angel caught it with practiced ease and then ensued a big fight with the big bad.

Russ then started to crawl over to the fight, trying to help Angel. After crawling a metre he was thrown up against the wall, once again by an invisible force. He groaned and, as he fell down off of it, he gripped his arm which had been broken during the falling. He'd fallen onto his arm as he fell and that brought about a yell. He tried to get up but the pain and the fact that he just couldn't get up stopped him.

Cordelia looked torn. She was holding another version of the axe she'd thrown to Angel. Angel turned to see what had happened and saw Cordelia's position.

"Cordelia! Give me the axe and help him!" He turned just as the big bad was about to sink its claws into his head. Cordelia threw Angel the extra axe and he continued fighting the big bad. She then rushed to Russ' side and helped him up. His arm was definitely mangled and Cordy winced as she saw it.

"We should probably get you to the hospital." Russ shook his head and said, after swallowing his pain,

"No, I'll be fine."

"Don't go trying to be all macho about this Russ." Russ tried to smile but it turned into a grimace of pain. He closed his eyes in concentration and then his body glowed as it seemed to _regenerate_. He was all better again. Even a small nick on his cheek was gone. Cordelia looked at him in surprise, this was definitely not expected.

"I'm not being macho. I told you I would be fine." He stood up slowly, as if getting used to his 'new' body. He smiled at her and she smiled back hesitantly. He opened his arms and said,

"See, all better." Cordelia launched herself into those arms and giggled slightly. But she retreated as soon as he drew in a quick breath and saw him wince. He bent over slightly in pain, or not exactly so slightly.

"Not exactly all better it seems." Cordy said and he looked up. He smiled slightly as he explained.

"Regeneration takes a lot out of me. Even if it's just a broken arm and a few scratches."

"So I guess you aren't invincible." Cordy said but didn't lose the whole worried and concerned look.

"At full power I could be practically invincible, in theory. But I'm never at full power, always at half and before this I wasn't even at half because I had to get into Angel's soul, or where it's meant to be anyways." Russ glanced to where Angel was fighting the big bad. Cordelia followed his gaze and her look of concern and worry deepened.

"Meant to be? Is he-?" Cordy turned back to Russ quickly as he straightened up.

"No, he's not evil. I'm just saying that his soul is buried deep. Well it was before he saw you. It's pretty fair to say that you bring out the… _soul_ in him." He left that with Cordelia, to make of that what she wanted to.

They both turned back to Angel who had just slain the big bad. He was now standing over its body looking slightly worse for wear and with two axes covered with blood. Well you know, the green yellow demon blood which can be expected from a big bad such as the one lying on the ground with its head a metre away.

"Hallo?" All three people (demon's, half-demon's, whatever) turned to see an unsure woman walk through the front door which was slightly ajar after knocking on it softly.

"Is anyone-?" The sentence got cut off as she saw the three people and the dead, headless big bad. She seemed torn between happiness and curiosity. Curiosity about the new demon standing there (not that she knew he was a demon) and the one lying on the floor. The happiness from the fact that everything seemed to be normal again. Well as normal as fighting demons can be.

"Angel, Cordy, hi." Russ stepped forward immediately and stuck out his hand.

"I'm Russet. Russ for short. I'm helping Angel now." Fred then shook his hand.

"Ah'm Fred. Russet's brown." Fred then hesitated before continuing, "Ah-ah don't mean you're brown. Ah-ah'm not racist or anything. Ah just mean that the word Russet means brown." Russ smiled.

"I know what you mean Fred. I get that a lot. Well... Not really, just from smart people who know what Russet means." Fred smiled and giggled slightly. Then the two finally realised that there were another two in the room and both separated as they came back to reality. After one last look at each other they then busied themselves. At least Russ got busy with looking busy. Fred got busy with questioning Angel and Cordy about how things were, how she was glad to see things normal in that un-normal way and etc.

"Fred." Fred stopped questioning and turned to Russ who had promptly stopped looking busy to talk to Fred.

"I was just wondering where you disappeared off to. I mean, Angel and I were wondering." Fred turned to continue her curious look at Angel, she didn't know that Russ knew that she'd disappeared. Obviously. Because she didn't know that Russ was from the Powers. Or even that he was a demon. Anyway. Angel nodded, he really was wondering and Russ had managed to steal the words from his mouth. He was probably going to pay for that later.

"Well… To tell you the truth, ah was looking for something."

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Angel asked, just before anyone else could get a word in edge wise. Fred nodded.

"Yes, ah did. And that's not a good thing. It's a very bad thing."

"What is it?" Russ popped in before anyone else could. One more point to go to the time when Angel is going to go off at a certain humanoid looking demon.

"It's…"

There was another crash behind Angel. And considering that the thing that had popped in before had been huge and had already made a hole, this thing had to be even bigger to make a crash. Fred's eyes widened and she pointed to the thing. Everyone else turned around and they all took in a large amount of air in a small amount of time.

"That." Fred finished and everyone else glanced over their shoulder in shock at the Texan before turning back to the very big very bad standing before them. Or should I say towering over them?


	5. Chapter 5: Incvincible Bad Guy

Chapter 5

All four people looked up at this very big very bad and thought, well more or less, the same thing.

'Oh, shit.' Well at least Russ and Cordy thought that whereas Angel used an Irish term that no one but Russ would understand out of the other three (having lived Angel's life) and Fred used some word which wasn't nearly as bad as any of them, given her upbringing.

Now, let's describe the very big very bad for you so you can understand why everyone used their respective terms. It stood at, or towered over by, at least seven feet probably a full eight. Its head wasn't that big, but its mouth was. It had a snout and the snout got bigger than the actual head. The teeth were a foot long, if not bigger. It had claws as big as its teeth and little beady eyes. Its body was just the bones and skin. The muscle was a small amount, but still visible, under the taught skin. And, of course how could I miss this, its skin was black-brown and looked as if it was burnt.

The very big very bad raised its head and roared. Along with scraping to very tall roof with the top of its head, it also shook the entire building with its roar. Angel looked beside him and saw a battle ready Cordelia with a big sword in her hand. On the other side Russ was standing with a cross bow. After a quick glance over his shoulder he saw Fred fiddling with something. Angel was in wonderment about how the three people around him were so fast at gathering their battle ready selves. He just raised the two axes and charged in, hacking, dodging and dismembering away. I mean, let's face it Angel is would be content to do this all day. Hacking, dodging and dismembering that is.

Russ was happy just shooting at its head a great many times from afar and Cordy chopped anything that came within a metre of the spot she was glued to. Okay, so she wasn't that eager about charging at the very big very bad, but can you blame her? Fred was still doing something on the ground and everyone knew that it was important. Especially after the strange axe-throwing device which saved them from the bug monsters (Season 3, Fredless).

Russ reached behind him to grab another arrow to reload into the bow but found he'd run out. He'd already used about ten of them. All of them were buried deep in the big bad's neck and torso. He took this opportunity to look behind him and see Fred's progress. She seemed to be adding the last tweaks on something that he couldn't even see. When he glanced back towards Angel and Cordy he saw that Cordy had given up any wishes to stay far away from the big bad whilst chopping at it. Cordy was now as much in the thick of it as Angel. Except that Angel was saving her neck more than a few times, along with his own of course.

Well, I guess the fact that after Angel doing his thing and dismembering this demon as well as he can it should mean that the demon is in tiny, tiny pieces. But, unfortunately, the demon was able to grow back parts. It just got more and more pissed off as people cut it into little pieces, forcing it to grow again. Because, as strong as it is, growing itself takes energy and this was a good thing for Angel and Cordy because this meant that they didn't have to fight it with all of its attention on them.

Fred finally finished what she was 'tweaking' and she called out.

"Angel, Cordy, y'all should move!" Angel and Cordy both glanced back before quickly running out of the way. Even though Fred's inventions are wacky and sometimes hard to realise what they're for this one was slightly obvious. Or more than slightly. Anyway, this particular invention looked suspiciously like a missile launcher. Fred moved to the back and then pressed a lever. A length of sharpened silver shot out and then pierced the big bad in the heart. The silver withdrew itself automatically so that the end was in the body and then the claw opened. Cutting the creature's heart to shreds. It fell onto its knees in pain and then crumpled up.

The four people stared at the defeated big bad before everyone started congratulating and praising Fred for her victory over the, now, not so big not so bad. The thing let out a groan and Fred leaped into Russ' arms with a shriek. Then she realised that it was an after-death groan she realised her position in relation to Russ'. She turned her face to Russ and they looked into each other's eyes for a minute, both of them lost helplessly.

Another crash that was caused by landing on the shards of glass on the ground made them leap apart in shock. A vamp was standing there, well he looked human but humans don't breeze in a hotel room twelve levels up through the window. Then of course there was the whole completely calm and collected look. Because even if a human had managed to get into a hotel room twelve levels up they wouldn't be calm and collected. Especially seeing a dead big bad in front of them.

The vamp actually looked not all that bad. He had longish brown hair and intense green eyes. He had one of those faces that looks like it belongs on a soapie or something. He was just a bit shorter than Angel and about as well built. He emanated waves of evil aura. They didn't need Lorne to tell them that particular fun fact. And he was very cocky, the way he stood as if he was invincible.

Then the vampire confirmed their suspicions and went into vamp mode. Angel stepped forward, no matter how tired or battered he was from the previous big bad. Okay the two previous big bads. The vamps started to battle it out. The evil vamp was actually quite well matched to Angel and it was like the twins were fighting each other. Only one of them played dirty. Really dirty. And I'm not talking about Angel.

Finally Angel found an opening and backed the other vamp against the wall and used the spring loaded stake hidden up his sleeve to pierce the vamp's heart. Or where it was meant to be. Angel withdrew the stake but nothing happened. The vamp smiled at Angel and then hit Angel's head with his own. When Angel brought his face back to the vamp he himself had gone into vamp mode.

"I," Angel punched the other vamp, "Don't," Angel punched him again, "Like," Another punch, "Getting," Another punch, "Hit," Another punch, "In," Another punch, "The," Another punch, "Head." Angel then finished the vamp who was about to pass out with a head hit. The vamp crumpled to the ground and Angel tried staking him again. When nothing happened Angel looked back at the other three behind him. Russ raised his crossbow and shot him in the heart but nothing happened either.

"Why is he not going poof?" Fred asked innocently. Angel looked at her and said,

"I have no idea." Angel tried to poke around with the stake but nothing happened. Angel stood up and stared at the unconscious vamp in front of him, puzzled. Cordy walked up to vamp and leaned down. She got out a flashlight and turned it on before shining it on the vamps skin. He got set on fire and when she flicked the flashlight off the skin as left extremely burnt. She put the torch back and stood up before talking to Angel.

"He's not invincible, this is an ultraviolet light." The vamp then came out of unconsciousness and looked up at them before getting up and jumping off the balcony. Okay, it was more like falling off the balcony because he was still a little shaky with the idea of actually walking in a straight line and all.

"How am I meant to pay for all of this? I wish that demons would give us a check for everything they destroyed or that we could claim it from them after we killed them. Or something." Cordy said as she looked around the mess that had been left behind after the three attacks they'd suffered from.

"It's as if my hotel room is a magnet for evil or something." Cordy sighed and went over to one of the chairs and sat down. She was exhausted and she wasn't the only one. Angel joined her sitting down, or I should say slouching, on the expensive chairs that came with the expensive hotel room.

"Are you okay?" Angel asked Cordy and she looked at him with a tired look.

"I'm fine. I thought I'd left most of this behind but it turns out that coming back to L.A. means coming back to demon attacks galore." Cordy sighed for the second time. Angel gestured over to Fred and Russ who were talking to each other with this awkwardness emanating from both of them.

"What's it with them?" Angel asked and Cordy shrugged.

"I'm guessing that they like each other. What with the awkwardness and the looks." Angel studied Cordy and she asked,

"What's up?"

"What's it with us?"

"I'm guessing that we like each other. What with the looks and the comfort when we're together that I don't get anywhere else. Or at least that's what I feel." Angel leaned in to Cordy.

"I feel it too." They got closer and closer together until…

"I can't..." Angel said and moved away from Cordelia with a sad look on his face.

"Why?" Cordy asked with this incredibly sad expression on her face that made Angel feel for her. He hated having to do this.

"Not right now. I mean after…" Angel trailed off and Cordy picked up from where he left off.

"After you get your soul secured. I get it." Cordy said and stood up and continued,

"I get it."

"I don't want to…" Angel stood up and tried to make eye contact with Cordy but he failed miserably.

"You don't want a lot of things do you?" Cordy asked harshly without looking at Angel.

"It's not that I don't want…" Angel got cut off by an angry Cordy, who was still refusing to make eye contact.

"Funny, that's what you said earlier."

"That's not what I meant…"

"Then what did you mean?" Finally Cordy made eye contact with Angel, who was starting to go into the sad puppy dog mode.

"I meant that I'm so close, we're so close, to being able to do some things, everything that we want to do together and not worry about anything. Remember when you said you couldn't be with me because of my past, because of Angelus?" Cordelia nodded, "Well, after this Angelus won't be in me anymore. There will be no chance of him ever resurfacing again. I just want to wait until I know that this is true. And if it doesn't work… It'll be easier to back out and resist the temptation…"He looked down at Cordy who was looking at him with such an expression that he couldn't bear it. All he wanted to do was dip his head down to hers and let their lips connect.

Their eyes were connected in such a heat of passion that, subconsciously, their heads were moving closer and closer together until… (Haha, tricked you again into thinking they were going to kiss .:Cheeky grin:.)

"We can't…" Angel said barely moving his lips. Cordy bit her lower lip.

"Of course." Instead of being aggressive like she was before now she was just disappointed. Just plain disappointed. But despite that they didn't move, still almost touching and looking into each others eyes until…

"THAT'S IT!" A yell came from behind them and they jumped apart. They both turned to the yelling person and saw Russ pumping his fists into the air in victory. Apparently he'd found something that was 'it'. And if he lived through the death looks Angel and Cordy were giving him then he would probably explain exactly what 'it' was. He looked between the two people with death looks and tried his 'winning smile'. It didn't win them over.

"Uh, I figured out what to do about Mr I'm so Invincible?" He said in a questioning voice so it sounded more like a question rather than a statement of a finding.

Then Cordy finally gave up her death look for a less threatening one and said,

"Okay. Fine. What do we do?" Angel glanced at her with a slight disappointment at her talking and not giving him death looks any more. She shrugged slightly at him so he too relaxed and became less threatening. He seemed to be less tall and towering and more brooding and hunched over. Okay he was still tall, but less psychologically tall.

"Well I've got this plan. Fred helped me with it," Russ gave Fred a warm smile and she returned it with equal fervour. Then, after another death look from Angel, Russ continued on.

"So, anyway. My plan is…"


	6. Chapter 6: The Plan

Chapter 6

Angel looked around the caravan which was decorated in a similar fashion to the tent that he'd wandered into what seemed like yesterday. Except, of course, it wasn't yesterday, it was a hundred and fifty years ago. Give or take.

He went over the plan again. Russ had said that the vampire was bound to show up again, sooner or later and when he did Angel would take off and Russ, Cordy and Fred would keep him busy. Injure him a bit, well try anyway, and then they would go to Angel who had gone to a gypsy who would hopefully help them. The vampire, as expected would track them and turn up at one time or another and, hopefully, by then they would know how to kill it besides the sun. Cordy's UV torch wasn't strong enough to kill a vampire, only hurt him for a bit. And sunset was way off and they had to kill this guy before he killed them. So the most important thing was for him to follow them and for the gypsy to help them.

Angel had learned about the caravan a few weeks ago. It had been parked high on a grassy hill that had absolutely nothing else on it. They sure had chosen a beautiful spot. Angel hadn't done anything about it though because they weren't doing anything. And Angel would soon come to realise that there was only one gypsy left and she wasn't exactly in a great enough form to go around stealing stuff like gypsies usually did.

Angel was actually standing outside the caravan, not having been invited in yet. Not that it looked like there was anyone that could invite him in. He heard a soft laugh from the far dark corner of the caravan. It got louder until it sounded like a cackle more than a laugh.

Angel turned as he heard a car pull up behind him and the cackle seemed to stop. He saw Russ, Fred and Cordy jump out and he would've breathed a sigh of relief if he actually breathed.

"Finally, what took you so long?" Angel asked and Russ looked at him with a chastising expression on his face.

"What do you think?" Russ asked sarcastically and Cordy decided to join in on the sarcasm trip.

"You know, the invincible vampire was bound to slow us down." She said and Angel surrendered.

"Fine, fine. I'm sorry."

"Why are there gypsies in Los Angeles anyways?" Fred asked. Angel turned back to the caravan and peered inside again.

"Romanian communists drove them out." Angel said absentmindedly.

"Couldn't you just put a soul in him instead of us having to come here?" Angel asked over his shoulder to Russ.

"No, I don't have any energy. What I have to do to you is going to need it all and unless you're willing to give that up…" Angel looked at Cordy and said quickly,

"No."

"Okay then." Russ pushed through Angel to step into the caravan. He was closely followed by Fred and then Cordy came in. Cordy invited Angel in after stepping up the steps in her wobbly high heels that almost made it impossible for her. How she fought off the vampire earlier when Angel wasn't there was as obscure to Angel as the facts of life.

Russ approached the far dark corner of the caravan. An old woman leaned forward so that the light revealed some of her wrinkled face that looked like leather.

"What is it demon?" Her voice was soft and raspy, like the throaty growl of a dog.

"I'm only half demon." Russ said in what could be possibly classified as something vaguely whiny.

"I wasn't talking to you." The gypsy snapped at Russ and then her voice softened ever so slightly,

"I was talking to the demon behind you." She pointed to Angel and Angel looked as if he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"We're not here about the demon." Russ said.

"I know why you're here." The gypsy snapped at Russ. The gypsy then continued,

"And I can't help you."

"What? Why not?" The gypsy ignored Russ' question and said,

"Come closer demon." Angel obliged and stepped forward so that he was only a step away from the gypsy.

"My people thought you could never last. You proved them very wrong. Now you do the work of an angel. My people could never have foreseen this." Angel thought about what she said.

"Your people… your people were the ones who did this to me?"

"Yes, they were."

"You are of the Kalderash people?" To this the gypsy merely nodded her head slightly.

"Do you still speak the native tongue?"

"Da." (Yes)

.:. This speech in this next bit is all in Romanian, well it's meant to be .:.

"How could I forget the mother tongue?" The gypsy said with a trace of happiness in her tone.

"It is one of the romance languages after all." Angel answered with a smile.

"Of course. Because Romanian men are so romantic." Angel grinned at the gypsy's comeback.

"You said before that I'd proved them wrong. Not that I'd proved you wrong."

"I've always went for the least likely of the people to triumph. And I was a teenager at the time you were given a soul. I decided to rebel against everyone else and go for you. Besides, you were so handsome. Still are. You haven't aged one day. It's like seeing into my past."

"Did you see the procedure?" The gypsy looked at him in a strange shyness that could only be possessed by a young person or someone reliving their young stage in life.

"Yes, I'd snuck away from one of my lessons and wandered into one of the tents that was banned from the young people. I saw the whole thing."

"Did you know the young woman who I…"

"The gypsy you killed?"

"Yes."

"She was a mean girl, everyone else loved her but I... She was so mean to me. You cannot imagine the terrible things she did to me. There's not much you remember from five years old but I remembered her doing something terrible to me… But this isn't the time or place for it."

"Can you help us defeat the demon?" Angel asked gently.

"Not in the way you want me to. Or should I say him." The gypsy gestured to Russ who understood everything they were saying.

"Which way?"

"I can offer you a piece of advice. This demon is not as undefeatable as you expect. You know that he cannot survive sunlight but then he cannot be staked. So the information you want is whether or not he has something that resists death by stake. A secret that baffles you and your friends."

"You know this secret." Angel didn't ask a question he said a statement. He usually didn't like gypsies but this one was special and funny. The fact that she shared a past with him only made it more of a complex puzzle and felt more and more like the Powers were guiding them without the use of Cordy's visions.

"Yes, the secret lies with the demon's heart. You simply assume that it is in the left side of the chest. But isn't it true that not all creature's hearts lie in the left side of their chest?"

.:. End of Romanian speech .:.

"That's it. That's it. His heart, it isn't in the left side of his chest." Russ said triumphantly.

"Wha?" Cordy came back from daydreaming. She and Fred obviously couldn't understand the Romanian passing between Angel and the gypsy so what was the use of pretending to understand?

"You mean he's a…" Fred started and Russ said,

"Yes, yes."

"Wow, well one vampire was bound to show up with that. Ah mean at one point or another. Ah know it's rare and all but…" A crash that rocked the caravan interrupted Fred and everyone looked around.

"He's quick." Angel said and everyone else silently agreed. Everyone except for the gypsy ran out of the cabin. They were confronted with an evil vampire with an evil grin on his face.

"Give me a stake." Russ said quietly to Angel and Angel looked at him with a weird look. He shrugged and said,

"I forgot my crossbow."

"You better not lose my stake." Angel said in a threatening voice. Russ gave him a look.

"Just give me the stake." Angel handed him the stake behind his back. Russ grabbed it and whispered to Angel,

"Keep him distracted." Angel didn't reply, he just charged at the vampire and they began the 'big fight'. It was pretty evenly matched and when Angel finally had him down he tried to stake him again by getting out another of his stakes and sticking it in the vamp's left chest. The vamp started to laugh at this and got up leaving the stake there.

"You can't kill me like that. Haven't you figured it out yet? Or are you really that slow?"

"See, that would be true. Except for the fact that I'm not on the receiving end of that stake you're about to die from." The vampire's features arranged themselves so that he had a completely clueless expression on his face.

"What are you…" Well that question would never be finished by that particular vampire because just before Angel's answer to his first question Russ had popped up from behind the vampire and after Angel finished talking and the vamp was halfway through his question Russ staked him in the _right_ side of his chest. The vampire looked at Angel before he collapsed into a pile of dust.

Angel looked at the pile of dust before asking Russ,

"His heart was in the right side of his chest?" Russ nodded.

"Well that wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be."

"None of us did." Cordy agreed.

"Can we go back to the hotel now?" Everyone turned to Fred who was looking past them all at where the caravan was. Then everyone else turned to see what was so interesting to Fred about the caravan and turned to see… Nothing. The caravan had disappeared and there was no trace of it ever being there in the first place.

"Uh, yeah." Cordy answered Fred's question and everyone got back into the car. On the trip back everyone was left with their own thoughts about what exactly had happened.


	7. Chapter 7: Earthquake

Chapter 7

When they got back to the hotel room Fred and Russ still had plenty of energy left, unlike Angel and Cordy who had both retired to different rooms to get some mental and physical rest. Fred walked out onto the balcony which had been used many times that night. She leaned over the rail and stared out into the night. There was a full moon and the beautiful view was brightly lit, spread before the two of them.

Russ joined her leaning against the rail and turned to face her. She spoke whilst still looking at the beautiful view stretched before the two of them.

"It's really beautiful," Fred turned to Russ who was looking at her, "Don't you think?" At this question Russ seemed to wake up and stopped gazing at Fred with a far off expression on his face.

"Most beautiful thing in the world." But instead of looking at the view he just continued looking at Fred. Fred noticed this and glanced back at Russ before a slight blush crept onto her cheeks. Fred breathed in before turning back to Russ and starting,

"Russ, ah think you're…" There was a rumble and the ground shook. Fred shrieked as the ground beneath her fell away from where Russ was standing. Russ fell apart from her and fell onto the ground far from Fred. When the rumbling finally stopped Russ got up to see Fred lying on a part of the balcony that had collapsed onto the level below, and had caused that one to be hanging on by just a few inches.

Russ rushed over to it and tried to reach down to Fred but she was too far for him. Angel and Cordy ran up behind him and tried to help by reaching for Fred but neither of them could reach. Russ rushed back into the hotel room and a sad look came over Fred's features but it quickly disappeared when he appeared again. He was holding some thick rope and he quickly handed one end to Angel.

"I'll go." Angel said as Russ handed him the rope. Russ shook his head.

"Let me go Angel."

"But it'll be easier for me to carry her up and…"

"Let me do this one thing Angel. You've always been the big hero and the saviour. Just this once, I want to save the woman I love." Angel bowed his head and accepted this answer. He tied it to the thick rail on the part of the balcony still secure and held it as well, to ensure it was okay.

Cordy stopped Russ with a hand on his shoulder. He turned to her and she said,

"Be careful." Russ nodded solemnly and then got a mischievous grin on his face and turned to Angel, deciding to push it a little bit.

"Besides, if you want a job done right you have to do it yourself. Right?" Then without waiting for an answer he started his climb down the rope to Fred lying below. When he got to Fred he checked her over for injuries.

"Are you okay?"

"Ah think my wrist's sprained." Fred said while wincing from the pain.

"Okay, I'll carry you up." Russ said after thinking for, well, a millisecond. Russ picked up Fred and wrapped she wrapped her arms around him (not too easy but she gripped hard with her good hand) and she wrapped her legs around his. Their faces were almost touching and in any other situation this could've been a lover's clinch but Russ couldn't exactly think about that now. He just had to hope that the rope wouldn't break. (Okay so it would require tremendous upper body strength for him to go back up the rope only using his arms whilst Fred is hanging on but she's thin and he's strong.)

When Russ got to the top he gripped at the edge with his fingers before manoeuvring himself so that his back was to the balcony so that Angel could reach down to help Fred up. Russ let himself hang for a minute after Fred had been lifted up. He tried to turn back to the balcony but it was harder than the first time. He winced as he had to practically twist his wrist in an attempt to turn his body.

Then there was another rumble. One of those aftershocks after a big earthquake. Well anyway. Russ winced and then got shook loose from the balcony and fell yelling down to the eleventh floor and then the balcony that he landed on fell onto the one below. When Russ disappeared from the ledge Fred leant over and yelled his name.

Everyone peered over the edge to see Russ' bloodied body all mangled two levels down. Angel jumped down because the balcony was one of the few that were stable. After he quickly checked Russ, and Fred held her breath, he sighed heavily. Neither of the two above him could tell if it was from relief or defeat. He looked up at the two above him and yelled up,

"We need to get him to a hospital."

"Okay, you jump down and take your car and we'll meet you there." Cordy shouted back down, being the other level headed person in this emergency. Angel nodded and proceeded to jump down many, many storeys whilst keeping Russ from getting any other injuries. (I know that's pretty impossible but stick with me here.)

Cordy and Fred ran into the hospital with Fred ahead and powering on at full speed. After pausing for a second to consult one of the nurses they both rushed through the hospital to the room in which Russ was being kept. Fred, in her big rush, almost knocked over a doctor on her way in. Apparently it was Russ' doctor and he gave her an immensely apologetic look. And Fred had a feeling that it wasn't about her running into him.

"I'm sorry Mrs…"

"**Ms** Burkle." Fred said putting extra emphasis on the 'Ms'.

"I'm really sorry Ms Burkle but there seems to be nothing we can do for Mr Brown. His injuries are too many and too advanced to be treated. At this stage it's lucky that he's still alive. We've given him some morphine but I'm afraid that the only thing that you can do now is wait. I have to tend to other patients from the earthquake." The doctor bowed his head and walked off. Fred looked as if someone had punched her in the gut. Or her closest friend had just back stabbed her.

She walked into the room with this expression and Russ noticed it right away.

"What's with the long face?" Russ asked Fred with a cool exterior. Okay, well cool goofy exterior. Russ is like a human (demon) puppy dog. Then he continued, worried, "How's your wrist?" Fred absentmindedly touched her wrist that Cordy had bandaged up with some bandages from the first aid kit in the bathroom that they had nabbed on the way here.

"Does he know?" Fred asked Angel incredulously, ignoring his question. Her mind was preoccupied, I mean Russ was really raising the bar for people who know they're going to die and are still keeping on a brave face. Russ jumped in before Angel could.

"Yeah, I do know."

"Then why…?" Fred trailed off knowing, or at least hoping, that Russ would understand. He did.

"Because I don't want to bring down the mood any more than it's already been lowered. If these are my last moments I want to be happy rather than grieving for my own death with everyone else." Fred started to cry and Russ opened his arms. Fred walked into them and Russ hugged her to him.

"Hey, hey. It's okay, it's okay Fred. It's okay." He murmured into her hair. Fred withdrew reluctantly from his embrace and asked in a teary voice,

"How can you say that it's okay? You're on your death bed."

"Hey, can't you regenerate?" Cordy cut in on the little couple's moment and offered an apologetic look afterwards as compensation. Russ shook his head.

"No, I don't have enough energy. My last reserves are being spent keeping me alive right now. There's some internal bleeding that's really doing damage and my energy's all being spent on trying to mend that. It won't hold for too much longer." Fred sobbed and Cordy and Angel both thought as one. They both moved to the door, excusing themselves quietly.

"Ah didn't know your last name was Brown." Fred said quietly. Russ chuckled and opened his arms in invitation. Fred took it and lay her head on his chest gently.

"It goes with the Russet. It was my parent's idea of a joke." Russ stroked her hair lovingly with his hand that was less injured than the other. Not saying that it wasn't injured, just saying that it wasn't as injured as the other.

"How do you get your energy? For regenerating and all?"

"I don't know. Usually the Powers give it to me. But I guess I'm too far gone. Even the Powers can't give me the amount of energy required for this much regeneration."

"But you must have the capacity to hold enough energy for this." Fred insisted and Russ agreed.

"I do, but I don't know how to get it. Only that I have to figure it out myself. The Powers gave me one clue but it's pretty cryptic."

"Ah hate cryptic stuff." Fred said bitterly. Russ chuckled and Fred felt it vibrate his chest under her.

"You and me both sugar."

"So what is it?" Fred lifted her head slightly to look at Russ and he smiled at her.

"They said, and I quote, 'This is something you cannot buy. Something that, when you learn it you will discover that it is the best thing in the world.'"

"Maybe it's baton twirling." This made Russ outright laugh. Fred got a little defensive, "What? Ah hear that baton twirling is quite good and relaxing and flashy."

Russ' smile became a mile long and he laughed so hard tears came to his eyes. He swiped them away and then the silence came. You know, the awkward silence that comes when two people realise that this is probably the last time that one of them was going to laugh. Ever in their entire life time.

"Ah'm going to miss you Russ. Ah'm going to miss you so much." Fred became choked up with tears and couldn't talk anymore. Russ just hugged Fred closer and said,

"You and me both sugar. You and me both." They lay like that for a few more minutes before Fred raised her head and looked at Russ. Then, without asking, without thought, almost as if it was a reflex she moved to Russ' lips and kissed them. It was a soft kiss, one of love instead of passion, one of feeling instead of need. The need would come later, as would the passion.

When Fred withdrew she became painfully aware of a constant beep from the monitor next to the bed and the fact that Russ wasn't opening his eyes. Fred shook him slightly but he didn't open his eyes. Then, instead of yelling and screaming as she usually would do she just lay her head back on his chest and said, with tears in her eyes,

"Ah love you Russ."


	8. Chapter 8: Greatest Thing

Chapter 8

This is what was happening outside the hospital room after Angel and Cordy left.

"We should talk Cordy." Angel said after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.

"What's there to talk about?" Cordy asked in such a harsh tone that it made Angel almost flinch. And you know how tough Angel is. The people closest always seem to be able to cut deepest though.

"You know." Angel said simply, having gotten over the whole almost flinching incident. Cordy sighed heavily. Angel couldn't tell whether this was because of her knowing and not wanting to talk or her not knowing and being annoyed at the fact that he should know that she didn't know. Trying to get his mind around all of the possibilities was making his head spin. But that usually happened in these kinds of situations. But Angel pretty much knew that it was a 'knowing and not wanting to talk' sigh. Call it male intuitiveness (contradiction there). Actually no, call it Angel intuitiveness.

"Alright then. Fine. Let's talk."

"I'm sorry, I really am sorry that we can't be together." Angel started and then motioned for Cordy to talk. She glared at him,

"What is this? You say something then I say something to that?" Angel shifted uncomfortably indicating that that was exactly what he was planning. Cordy continued,

"Well, I don't know what to say Angel. Of course I should've guessed that this was coming. You not being able to... Well, it being impossible for us to be together. But I thought that you'd at least do it with some style."

"I'm sorry Cordy, it's just that if we get involved before you know it we'll be in too deep and we'll want what we obviously can't have and you have no idea how hard that is and how much pain it can bring up and I know it hurts now but it'll end up hurting even more and…" Angel had actually, for once in his unnaturally long undead life, babbled. Must've caught it from Fred, or he could've just learned it from Willow and this was just on of those classic babbling moments. Or maybe he was a closet babbler and he just couldn't help himself in this particular babbling moment. Cordelia cut him off.

"But of course you would know all about that because of Buffy. Right?" Angel looked distinctly uncomfortable and slouched into himself even further. Obviously her words had cut into him more than even she could know.

"Please Cordelia." With those two words, coupled with Angel's pleading puppy dog look (you have to admit that that look is pretty powerful), Cordelia finally softened (I mean who wouldn't?). Angel continued on with such passion that no one would be able to disbelieve him,

"I love you so much, you have to know that." Angel said, meaning every words, and Cordelia knew that. Cordy couldn't help but smile despite herself.

"I know." Smiling was apparently catching as Angel felt the ends of his mouth twitch in an upward direction. Okay, more than just twitch. Despite the fact that she hadn't said 'I love you too' he still felt the urge to grin like an idiot. So he just continued instead of standing there grinning like an idiot.

"And if I'm meant to get my soul secured. Then that's what the Powers are going to make sure is going to happen. So all we have to do is wait." He said. Cordy's eyes got to the stage were they were about as soft as they could get. Angel moved closer to Cordy and continued softly with the whole big brown eyes package,

"Are we in love?" Once again Cordy couldn't help but smile and even let out a breath from pure joy.

"We are." Then, despite what Angel had said before they still moved closer together. Angel reached down and cupped Cordy's cheek in one of his big hands. She looked up at him with her own big brown eyes and he swooped down and captured her lips with his. When they separated Cordy smiled slightly before saying,

"So now I know how much those heart wrenching speeches are worth." Angel smiled down at her.

"You make me forget everything else. You're the only thing that matters." Cordy's smile brightened and was about to reach up for another kiss until she heard the long beep that was coming from the hospital room holding Russ and Fred that they had just vacated. Cordy looked at Angel to find her own fear mirrored on his face. Then, once again they shared the same thought.

Angel and Cordy burst into the room at the sound of the constant beep and saw Fred lying with her head on his chest.

"Ah love you Russ."

Cordy stood there and felt a coldness sweep over her. She couldn't believe it, while she and Angel were sucking face Russ was in here dying. She felt tears spring to her eyes and wished she could ask for forgiveness from Russ. Then, in an instant the coldness disappeared and she felt as if she'd been granted forgiveness from her dead friend. She closed her eyes in thanks.

Meanwhile Angel was feeling the guilt. It spread through him like a wildfire. As he looked at Fred with her lying on Russ' chest he felt as if he'd betrayed Russ in some way. As if him fixing up his own romantic life outside was only guaranteeing the death of Russ' inside the room. He knew that this was one more life that he'd managed to ruin. It brought back memories of back in the Day. He closed his eyes, grieving Russ' leaving.

Whilst this was going through Angel and Cordy's respective heads Fred had her own thoughts to process. Like her sadness and the tears that were rolling slowly down her cheeks. All she could feel was her love for the man whose chest she was lying on and the fact that maybe if she'd been more open to opening herself to him, to let herself feel her love for him then he wouldn't be dead. This was all her fault. As she thought that a new bout of sobs racked her body.

And that wasn't the only thing which racked her body. It was also racked with guilt. A deep guilt which cut so deep that not even five years in a hell dimension could reach that deep. Like I said before, the people closest always seem to cut the deepest. And right now Fred could say that she'd been cut so deep that there would be no way she could heal. Well, there was one way. And the chances of it aren't very promising but then Fred was lucky enough to have this once-in-a-lifetime kinda thing happen to her.

After all of these things happened the monitor next to Russ seemed to blow a fuse and Russ began to shake violently. Fred backed away slowly, mesmerised and terrified at the same time. Then Russ's back arched against the bed and his eyes and mouth opened to have blinding white light come out of both of them. Angel, Cordy and Fred all backed against the wall. Fred, for once, was the one closest to Russ and looked on with less fear than the others in her eyes.

The white light last for a second and whilst it did scars and bruises on Russ' face shrank away. After his whole body set itself right Russ collapsed back onto the bed. All three humans (okay, two humans and one vampire) began approaching him until Russ sat up like a Jack in the Box. Cordy actually jumped, Angel was reminded of how Darla woke up after being revamped by Drusilla and Fred just smiled radiantly.

Fred was the first to approach Russ who turned to look at her almost mechanically. Then his limbs seemed to lose all mechanistic features as he saw her and smiled slowly and said softly,

"I love you too." Fred then launched herself at him and they kissed with burning need and more passion than seemed safe. When they finally separated slowly Cordy went in annoying information gatherer mode. (Hey this sounds like she's a reporter! Joking, sorry to all you reporters out there.)

"How did you regenerate? I thought that you didn't have enough energy." Cordy asked (and then said). Russ shifted his eyes to Cordy and proceeded to explain what he'd figured out so far.

"I'm guessing Fred had something to do with it. I'm guessing love had something to do with it really." Then he lifted the shirt he was wearing to show his taut, slight six-pack stomach. He pointed to an area left of the six pack and said,

"You see, I used to have a scar that went from the bottom of my ribs to my waist that, no matter how many times I regenerated, never went away. I just couldn't regenerate enough, because it was pretty deep. But now I'm in a whole new body. A brand new body. All thanks to Fred." Fred blushed at all of the credit (some of it was also probably form the previous lifting of the shirt) and said,

"Aw, it was nothing." But Russ would have none of it. And Fred knew that it was a whole lot more than nothing. Just minutes before she was feeling guilt so deep. All three of them were and now it was all gone, it had all disappeared because Fred had said three simple words. In the past those three words had proved difficult for many people and possibly that was why they were the three magic words. But all Fred knew was that in mere seconds she'd gone from incredibly sad and guilty to happy and proud of herself. The transformations we go through.

"It was my life Fred." He said gently and took her hand in the two of his own. Their eyes connected and Fred knew that she could never love anyone else as much as she loved Russ at this moment. After a few seconds Russ chuckled to himself and looked away from Fred. Obviously a private thought.

"What?" Fred asked. Russ looked back at her and replied,

"I can't believe that the Powers That Be have watched Moulin Rouge." That was simply too cryptic for Cordy to pass up and she jumped in, right on cue.

"The PTB have seen Moulin Rouge? As in Moulin Rouge the movie?" Cordy asked, practically bursting from curiosity. Angel, however, was absolutely lost and so was Fred, considering the fact that she was in Pylea at the time Moulin Rouge was released.

"Yeah, they said that I would get my power when I learned something that I would discover was the best thing in the world. And, as you and I know, the main philosophy of Moulin Rouge was…" Cordy finished it off for Russ.

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."


	9. Chapter 9: Diner Named 'Joes'

Chapter 9

"Well, for once Hollywood got something right." Russ said as he looked at Fred with a love so deep that everyone in the room was touched. Fred and Cordy were the most touched each coming equal firsts for different reasons and Angel was happy for the two of them. Maybe he would end up going to a wedding for a different reason than eating the guests. You never know. About the wedding, not the guest eating.

"We should leave you two alone…" Cordy said and began to shove Angel through the door behind her but Russ stopped them with a hand.

"No, we should all go. Before the doctors begin to wonder how I made the miraculous recovery and all." Russ jumped off the bed with the agility of a world class athlete in their prime. Fred just had that giddy expression that she sometimes gets. You know the one with the smile that seems to big for her face and the big eyes and that slightly crazy sounding laugh that seems to pour from her mouth. And then the covering of the aforesaid mouth with her hands.

So they all filed out of the room with Russ in the lead then Fred and Angel and Cordy in the rear. Angel and Cordy mostly marvelling about Russ' miraculous recovery themselves. But as they were filing out Russ managed to bump into the doctor. His doctor. The one from before who had tried, but failed miserably, to offer his condolences to Fred earlier.

"Uh, Mr Brown?" The doctor looked positively stumped at why Russ was walking around and at the disappearance of all his bruises, bumps and cuts that had been so decorative for his face before.

"Yeah?" Russ asked and Fred nudged him in one of those 'this is a time when you should've not told the truth' ways. Russ turned to her and smiled his reassurance. Fred looked up at him with big eyes before letting him do what he wanted to do.

"Brown? Russet Brown?" The doctor continued incredulously. Russ shook his head.

"No, I'm Russ' twin brother. Pete." Russ stuck out his hand and the doctor shook it hesitantly.

"I didn't know Russ' had a twin brother." He said before pushing his glasses back up his nose.

"He doesn't talk about me much. I'm kinda the black sheep of the family." The doctor's mouth pulled itself into an 'oh'. The gang then started to walk away from the doctor before he stopped them with a,

"So how is he? Your 'brother'? He doin' okay?" The doctor walked up to them again and confronted Russ. He continued, "Cos you're not such a nice brother. Leaving him in there to fend for himself. To approach the pearly white gates with no one to say 'I'll miss you' or read him his last rites or…" Russ cut him off with a punch and the doctor crumpled. Angel gave him a look and then Russ shrugged.

"You would've done the exact same thing." Russ said and Angel was about to protest before thinking about it and finding that Russ was right. That doctor really was starting to get on his nerves. Plus there was that whole not liking hospital thing that seemed to be shared between all four of them. Cordy had bad experiences, Angel had bad experiences, Russ had bad experiences (like just momentarily dying in one) and Fred just thought they were too clean and that they smelled funny.

As soon as they got out Fred took in a big breath of air and Russ looked at her before cracking up at her ballooned up cheeks and the disappearance of her previous slight tinge of red turning blue. He gave her a kiss on the forehead as she looked at him with a bewildered and slightly embarrassed expression. She smiled at the kiss and went all gooey.

Angel and Cordy were just happy to get out of the hospital and as they watched the exchange they smirked to one another as if they knew something that the other two didn't. Or that they thought that they were above it all. But Cordy couldn't help but let slip a small laugh and Angel couldn't help but smile. And we know how rare one of those is.

And Fred was too busy with Russ to be concerned with how happy Angel was to start poking him whilst expressing that concern.

Then for absolutely no apparent reason they found themselves having wondered around aimlessly to end up in front of the caravan turned diner named 'Joes' in which Cordy had come bursting through the doors when Angel and Russ and met her for the first time since when she first went away. Russ expressed that he had a craving for pancakes and after a squeal of joy from Fred they all went in.

It was also the smart choice to the 'Where are we going next?' question. Seeing as how the hotel room was pretty much wrecked what with the earthquake and all that jazz. Russ and Fred both ordered their beloved pancakes and shared it, feeding each other, giggling and, on occasion, giving each other pancake kisses. Angel and Cordy, sitting on the opposite side of the table looked at them for a second before turning to each other.

"So..." Cordy started. There were a few mumbles from across the table and Angel and Cordy looked over at Russ who was trying to swallow his pancakes so he could say something. He swallowed this huge lump and then said,

"Angel, you tell Cordy about that time when you were turned into Angelus? What caused you to lose your soul?" Russ smiled and Angel and Angel just gave him a death look. Cordy looked at the both of them, utterly confused.

"Didn't the shaman make you lose your soul?"

"Well, uh..."

"Nup, the shaman gave Angel a chance to create the perfect happi..." Angel gave Russ a death look so strong that a normal human being would've died on the spot.

"You say one word and I will do something that you will regret. I know you just died, but who here hasn't?"

"Uh, me." Fred said with a mouthful of pancakes. A bit of maple syrup leaked out of her mouth as she attempted to make words come out of her pancake filled mouth. Russ quickly swooped in and kissed it all off.

"And me." Cordy slotted in, not actually knowing that she had. Forgetting the real past, remember?

"Well... Fine." Angel was left with this look of slight annoyance at Fred and really pissed off look at Russ. Russ just shrugged and turned to Fred who put some more pancakes in his mouth, finding it empty. And an empty mouth was something that just wouldn't do.

"What happened?" Cordy asked Angel and he dropped all bad thoughts when he looked at Cordy.

"Well the shaman made me believe that I was living my perfect day which gave me the perfect happiness required to lose my soul." Cordy played with one of Angel's palms.

"And what happened in this perfect day?" She asked as she traced one of the lines in his palm. Angel looked down at the line she was tracing and hesitated slightly before replying,

"Well a lot of things."

"Such as..." Cordy pushed slightly and Angel decided to give.

"Well, Connor and I made up after I made it perfectly clear that you weren't his (Cordy raised an eyebrow at this but Angel just ploughed on), we all defeated the beast, brought the sun back and..." Cordy looked at Angel for this last one, knowing that it was the thing that really rocked the boat, "We... you know..." Cordy smiled brightly and Angel smiled slightly, not really wanting to show his glee too much in front of the other two.

Then again the other two were so engorged in each other they really didn't notice Angel and Cordy so Angel allowed his smile to go onto high beam. So while one couple were shovelling pancakes into each others mouths and kissing the other were grinning like crazy at each other. So wasn't this just the perfect time for something to happen that would take all the happiness away?

The Powers sure thought so. And so...


	10. Chapter 10: Evil City Council

Chapter 10

Cordy cried out and held her head as if it was about to split open. In that exact moment Russ' eyes widened and he stood up in shock Angel quickly grabbed Cordy and held her to him to prevent her getting hurt in the throes of her vision. Fred moved forward to help Cordy and Russ pushed himself out of the booth and, as he walked backwards, he tripped over one of the stools by the counter and fell onto the floor heavily. This caught Fred's attention and she turned to look at him worriedly and quickly got out of the booth too. This caused Russ to crabwalk backwards in fear and Fred looked at him wide-eyed. Worried.

"Russ?" Fred asked but Russ didn't respond. He kept going backwards until he got to the door and then he scrambled up and ran out of the door. Fred looked torn as he backed off and disappeared. She looked from Angel and Cordy to the door of the brightly lit diner. Angel looked up at her, his eyes clouded with worry but the answer lay clearly there. She quickly exited the diner, hoping that Cordy would be okay, and glanced around quickly before spotting Russ who was stumbling around at one end of the street.

Angel watched Fred depart and held Cordy tightly to his chest, ignoring the blows she was letting loose that were glancing off of his shoulders and chest. Cordy struggled against him and he tightened his arms that were wrapped around Cordy and her arms. He felt his chest constrict in a feeling that is felt by a person who loves someone else who is in pain but that they can't help.

After a few glances from the waitress behind the counter Angel made another decision and swiftly scooped Cordy into his arms, still holding her tightly to him and carried her out of the diner. He picked up Fred's trail and decided it would be best if they met up so he started to follow her scent, Cordy still struggling in his arms.

Fred jogged along the street following the crashes, footfalls in front of her and the back of the man fleeing from her. She ran so fast across the pavement that she felt like she could've been flying. There was a crash in an alleyway to the side of her and she walked quickly into it. She slowly approached a man shaking and quivering in the corner of the alleyway.

(This next bit is Russ just mimicking all these lines from the characters specified. At the end imagine that the lines start coming faster and closer together.)

"The wormy won't dance if he's not told to." Drusilla.

"I'll take the dragon." Angel.

"Handsome man saved me from the monsters." Fred.

"Didn't occur to you that something might've changed?" Fred.

"The cavemen win." Fred.

"Cordy's dead. She never came back." Angel.

"I want you to have something real." Cordy.

"After this I'm done." Lorne.

"Angel kills me." Lindsey.

"These endless days are finally ending in a blaze." Buffy.

"You never know until you're tested." Doyle.

"One last job." Lorne.

Then Russ was quiet and Fred bent in front of him, confusion lying clear across her face. Especially since most of the things he'd mimicked were things she didn't know of. Especially all expect one of the lines that she recognised as being said in her own voice. Russ looked at her as if seeing her for the first time and said one thing,

"Were we in love?" He used Cordy's voice for this and Fred just looked at him wordlessly.

"You are in love." Angel said quietly and both Fred and Russ looked at him. He was standing there with Cordy in his arms, having just heard most of what had just been said.

"What do you know?" Russ asked harshly and Angel looked slightly taken back. This was the first time that Russ had ever been harsh to Angel. Russ continued, his voice going from harsh to hurt, "You know that Cordy is alive, that she woke up from her coma and just moved away from LA. That she just chose to move back right now and that everything seems to be wrapping itself up well. I got news for you Angel, its not. You and I both thought that. And you and I both thought that Fred just moved away and chose to come back now too. Well you and I were wrong. And I know that now. And it's killing me."

"What do you mean?" Fred asked softly, hurt showing. Russ looked at her and found himself speechless, not able to put his thoughts and feelings and discoveries into words.

"Cordy's not coming back." He said, his eyes shining with unshed tears and he continued, after a pause during which he tried unsuccessfully to gather himself, "And when she's gone you're gone too."

"What?" Fred asked and Russ just shook his head and looked at the ground intensely.

"What are you talking about?" Angel asked with a stormy expression on his face.

"You recognise this place?" Russ asked, glancing around the alleyway and Angel glanced around shortly before recognising it, accepting the dodge for the moment.

"This is where we first met... And where Darla died and Connor was born." Angel said, realising where they were and Russ nodded.

"This is a big spot. Centre of mystical convergence kinda place." Russ began and then went off onto a different path altogether, "When I was sent here I was sent here with all the knowledge you had. And that knowledge was altered when yours was. Until now. Cordy never woke up from the coma, she died. Fred died a few weeks after that when a parasite hollowed out her body and used it as lodging for an ancient god."

"What-?" Fred said so softly that no one actually heard her and Russ continued.

"Right now Cordy's getting an update through that vision she's having..."

"Well when it ends we'll have her back. Right?" Angel said, holding Cordy just that little bit tighter.

"No. When it ends... She'll be gone. And Fred with her."

"What?" Angel almost shouted at Russ and Russ retreated into the shadows.

"You don't understand. They're not meant to be here. Cordy and Fred were here for one purpose only, to get you to want to have a soul again. And they've done that. So now the Powers think that there's no point in keeping them here." Russ said, and you could hear the tears weighing on his speech. Probably the only thing stopping Angel from dropping Cordy and beating him to a bloody pulp.

"If Cordy goes do you really think that I will want a soul?" Angel asked, teeth gritted and anger clear.

"If Fred goes do you really think that I'll have the power to give it to you?" Russ asked back quietly and it had the desired effect. Angel went quiet, realising how true the question was. Russ continued quietly, "We both lose something from this Angel. Don't think that I'm the bad guy here. I don't want either of them to go."

"Then don't let us go." Fred said, speaking up for the first time in a while.

"I-" Russ said and then found himself speechless.

"Russ, ah love you and ah don't want to go anywhere." Fred continued and Russ just looked at her with this sad puppy dog look in his eyes.

"I love you too." He replied and Fred put her hand in his.

"So let's work the problem." She said, squeezing his hand, trying to give him hope through her eyes that there was a way to figure this out and come out on top. Something seemed to change in that instant. Through that touch Russ felt as if some hop had been instilled in him and Angel felt this change and also seemed to respond to it.

"This isn't a science problem that you can 'work' Fred. This is the Powers we're talking about." Russ said dejectedly. But only his voice was dejected, hope seemed to shine in his eyes which showed that he thought with Fred that, somehow, the could work around it.

"Then let's work the Powers. Ah mean..." Fred trailed off and the attempted to recover, "You know what ah mean." The two guys looked at each other with mischievous looks and decided to make Fred sweat it.

"No." Angel said and Russ said at the same time,

"Not really." Fred looked at the two of them and just calmly smooshed Russ' hand which was in her own hand and Russ winced shortly before surrendering.

"Okay, okay. Sorry, sorry." He said and Fred loosened her death grip and smiled at him sweetly. He grimaced back as he got his hand back from Fred and shook it, trying to get the feeling back into it.

"So how do you propose we 'work the powers'?" Russ said, not being able to help himself, with enough self control to only smirk heavily and actually repress the laughs building up. For about five seconds. Then he started sniggering and then came the full blown laughter. Then came the hitting from Fred to Russ' arm and then the laughter turned to whimpers. The girl could pack a punch.

"You should go before them, try to explain the situation." Fred suggested but Russ shook his head.

"Wouldn't work, the powers are like the evil city council. Wouldn't even spend five cents or two workers on the worthiest of causes. Like a gigantic pot hole in the middle of the main road that makes your car go KA-CHUNK every time you drive there..." Russ trailed off as he realised the looks he was getting, "What? Okay, bottom line they wouldn't go for it."

"Why not?" Fred almost whined and Russ looked at her.

"Did you not just hear my evil city council speech? Y'know the one with the pot hole and the KA-CHUNK." Russ said and Fred nodded.

"Yeah, ah did but still."

"No, no still. Fred, huns, babe, beautiful love of my life, this is the Powers That Be we're talking about here. And when Cordy's done getting the full upload it's over. You're both back to where ever you were and Angel gets his soul secured. Dunno what he's gonna do to celebrate though..." Russ said and trailed off probably thinking of Angel sitting down brooding in a dark corner with a bottle of old wine in hand.

And looking at Angel you could tell he was thinking of it too. And living it... Except without the wine. And it brought him back form the mischievousness of before down to earth and the struggling Cordy who had her head back and was bucking wildly in his arms. He tried to settle her unsuccessfully and went back to looking all broody.

"Well can't there be something? Like a mission where we can save the world. You know, like when we stopped world peace we got Wolfram and Hart, it could be like the opposite of that. We could make world peace and get to stay in the world." Fred said and Russ smiled slightly at her suggestion.

"You're sweet, and so cute, but it'll take something big." Russ said, taking Fred's hand and squeezing it reassuringly. Fred looked at him glumly and he leaned over and put a kiss on her forehead. This cheered her up, even if only slightly.

"What about the trials?" Angel said all of a sudden and the two lovers turned to look at him, puzzled.

"You mean the trials you went through to try and give Darla another chance at life?" Russ asked and Angel nodded. Russ stood up all of a sudden, hope renewed.

"That could work. I mean, that guy still owes you a life. But then, you can't go through the trials twice, even for two different people." Russ said and looked at the ground, then he looked up determination in his eyes, "I'm gonna go for Fred."

"No! You can't. You won't make it." Angel insisted but Russ stood steadfast.

"I will." Russ said determined.

"They're meant for heroes. You're just a messenger. You won't last the first trial."

"Angel, trust me. I got a few tricks up my sleeve. Plus," Russ wiggled his fingers in front of Angel's face, "I'm regenerative remember?"

"Russ, maybe you shouldn't. Ah mean what if Angel is right. Ah know you have the potential to go through this and ace it but what if something happens. Ah can't lose you." Fred said, trying the approach of letting him down easy but Russ wasn't going to take it.

"And I can't lose you." Russ cupped Fred's cheeks with his hands and he looked deep into her eyes, "I love you Fred and there's no way I'm letting you go without a good fight." Fred looked up at him, her eyes shining brilliantly and Russ bent down to kiss her gently. After a few seconds Angel coughed and the two separated slowly before Russ shot Angel a look and Angel just shrugged at him and did his best at indicating to his watch with Cordy in his arms.

It took them about ten minutes to get to the pool and when they got there Angel set Cordy down next to Fred who promised to take good care of her until they got into the trial area and the two men/demons/half demons looked into the empty pool. Russ gulped visibly and audibly.

"This ain't gonna hurt is it? Cos I didn't actually feel what happened in this part. And I figure some feeling has to be involved." He asked and Angel shrugged.

"It's like an electric shock coursing through your body." He said, enjoying the white look that came over Russ' face from the little white lie he'd told.

"See you down there." Angel said over his shoulder to Fred and the still unconscious Cordy. Fred nodded and Russ looked at Angel.

"Electric shock huh?" He asked and Angel nodded shortly before diving in. Russ did one of those air crosses in front of his body and dived in after him.


	11. Chapter 11: Let The Trials Begin

Chapter 11

Angel landed in a tumble and Russ kinda did this thing where he ended up falling on his ass on the floor of the trial area (okay, I really don't know what to call it so let's just stick with that eh?). Angel walked over to Russ who was sitting down with a pissed off expression and hefted him up with one hand. Russ just rubbed his ass with one hand and continued to give Angel a pissed off look.

(This speech here is gonna have more swearing from Russ that ever before cos he's really pissed. Also, using freaking instead of the other term cos Russ isn't that bad of a swearer.)

"There was no freaking electric shock. And while I was tensing for that freaking non existent electric shock I wasn't ready for the freaking landing so I landed on my freaking ass on some hard as hell concrete or stones or whatever the hell that shit is beneath us. So now my freaking ass hurts and I am in no freaking shape to face off with some freaking scary ass 'Look at me I can pull myself together' yellow coated demon wearing good old fashioned freaking chain mail. And I'm blaming you!" Russ finished more pissed off than when he began. And Angel looked slightly scared of the enormously pissed off half demon in front of him. Well there's a first time for everything.

"Can I help you gentlemen or would you like to continue this disagreement elsewhere?" A posh voice came from in front of them and the Host (okay, that's the name I've given the guy for now) appeared. They both turned and Angel's shoulders sagged slightly in recognition and Russ blinked a few times, not really believing his eyes.

"Randy? You're doing these trials. God, I thought you were doing the heaven or hell trials." Russ asked, shocked and surprised at the same time. The proper Englishman looked at him and then recognition washed over his face.

"Russ? Yeah, they transferred me, said I did be'er bein' the 'ost o' the trials fer givin' out life." He asked without so much of a pommy accent as a cockney accent. Amazing how one could possess the two and switch between them at just the sight of a person.

"Really? Geez tough break man. So anyway Randy, how are ya mate?" Russ said and went over to pull 'Randy' into a hug.

"Good, good and yourself?" Randy had managed to pull himself back from the cockney accent and back to the pommy one. But more of a laidback pommy accent.

"I'm right thanks." Russ responded with a grin.

"So you want to take the trials. I never thought I'd see the day." Randy said, regarding Russ with a slightly respectful look.

"Well... Y'know... There comes a time in everyone's life when they need to save someone else's life." Russ said grimacing his way through the explanation.

"I remember a time when you swore you'd never go through the life giving trials for anyone but the one you loved." Randy said, now looking at him curiously wondering what had caused this new development.

"And that's still true Randy." Russ replied and this caused Randy to grin.

"Ah yes, the women. I assume Mr Angel is attempting to save one and you the other, am I right?" Randy (Alright, I can't get over that name lol) said.

"Well, uh, _Mr_ Angel here doesn't need to go through them, only me." Russ said and Randy looked at him with a confused expression on his face.

"What do you mean Russ?" He asked and Russ sighed heavily.

"Don't play with me Randy. You guys owe Angel a life from last time. Remember when you couldn't give it to Darla? Well you can pay him back now." Russ said and Randy kept his 'I don't know what you're talking about' expression on for a few more seconds before breaking down.

"Very well, but only for you Russet."

"Thanks mate." Russ grinned in what could be called evilly, especially in these circumstances and especially by Randy.

"You still need to go through the trials for your life though." Randy said and Russ nodded.

"Yeah, yellow warrior guy, roomful of crosses, stakes flying at me, I got it. You might change the last two but I've got the gist of it." Russ said and Randy shook his head. At this Russ cocked his head to one side.

"Waddya mean 'no'?" Russ asked and Randy shook his head silently again. Russ sighed exasperatedly.

"Who are you? Silent Bob? Geez Randy, this is me. Russ." Russ said, pointing to himself and Randy looked unsure but he gave in.

"Once again, only for you Russ. Angel got different trials because he is a physical champion, the mystical gifts he has are little or none. He is a vampire, after all. But you are a messenger to the Powers, a half demon that is high up in the ranks of the powers of good. You have the power to regenerate just as that demon from Mr Angel's trials had and obviously the crosses and holy water do not affect you. And the stakes would hurt a lot but you would eventually recuperate after heavy regeneration.

"You are a mystical hero, not just a messenger. Another reason why you are down here with Angel, able to take the tests. You do not revel in the power of the fist but rather the power of the mind and the mystical realm.

"Therefore you will be tested accordingly." Randy finished and all present looked slightly blown away. Which was the two in front of him and Angel looked slightly confused and a little insulted at the 'vampire' remark. Sure he didn't exactly enjoy being a vampire but it didn't mean that he liked people insulting them or, more precisely, him because of his vampireness.

"So... Shall the trials begin? You don't need my shirt and shoes do you?" Russ asked, trying to lighten up the situation. And, just diverging here, Russ is wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows and black pants and black shoes. That was random but I just wanted to get that image into your head, oh and a brown jacket over the shirt with rolled up sleeves also. So you got it? Okay, let's continue.

"Not unless you want me to take them because you want to show off." Randy replied and Ross pretended to contemplate it for a second before scrunching up his nose and shaking his head.

"Nah," He said and Randy inclined his head towards Russ and motioned for him to step forward. Russ did so and Randy put a hand on Russ' head and said,

"Let the trials begin."

And then everything went black

"You can't go through the trials Russ." Doyle's voice said out of the blackness and Russ' eyes adjusted enough to realise that he was in the Black Void. Doyle stood in front of him, a small red bouncy ball in hand which he tossed up and caught occasionally. Well it was different from the cards he had been holding when Russ first met him.

"Why can't I go through the trials?" Russ asked and Doyle sighed and tossed the ball to him. Russ caught it and looked at Doyle, expecting an answer before throwing back the ball.

"It wouldn't work out even if she did Russ. One of you is destined to be a Power."

"A Power? I'm gonna be a Power?" Russ said, mouth slightly open. He tossed back the ball in a medium to hard throw, as if testing if Doyle was telling the truth.

"Not you Russ." Doyle said and Russ thought for a second and when it dawned on him he was completely shocked.

"Fred? Fred's gonna be a Power?" He asked incredulously and Doyle nodded. Doyle tossed up the ball and caught it again.

"But... how?" He asked again and Doyle began the explanation that he'd been preparing for mentally. He continued tossing it up and catching it.

"She's been in training as a power since after Illyria possessed her." Doyle replied but Russ wasn't satisfied.

"But...what? Hang on a sec, just out of curiosity I was wondering why I knew stuff about her that even Angel didn't know. Like her last few minutes alive when only Wesley was there." He asked, curious about this development.

"When she said she loved you she didn't just renew your powers, she entangled your past together. And you future. That's what happened with me and Cordy when I passed the visions onto her and Angel and Cordy when they confessed their love and Angel and Buffy when they confessed their love. Believe me, it gets really complicated. You know how Buffy always seems to be able to sense Angel and Angel can sense Buffy even if they don't see each other?" Russ nodded and Doyle continued,

"That's because whenever something big romantic thing happens with two mystical people they get entwined. Their destinies are fit together in some places. That's what happened to Cor. She became a higher being because I had this position. And there's this whole complicated thing about how I'm here cos I got _involved_ with one of the Powers a while back. You see, when Fred becomes a Power you're gonna take my place. And I'm gonna move on."

"Move on?"

"To a nice dimension, one with palm trees maybe and definitely lacking in shrimp. Eurgh, I hate that stuff. And where it has wine flowing in the rivers and streams and waterfalls. Oh there's definitely gotta be a big waterfall flowing with that 1967..." Russ cut him off with a cough and Doyle snapped back to reality. He juggled the ball between his hands almost nervously as he snapped back to reality.

"Right, sorry. What I'm saying is that you can't take the trials because Fred is meant to be a Power and you are meant to be in my position when she becomes one." Doyle said, and tossed the red ball up in the air and caught it easily. Russ looked down at the ground intently then he looked up at Doyle and stood quickly. Doyle tossed the ball up again and Russ caught it this time, intercepting it. With it he also caught Doyle's attention, who looked at him with a slightly annoyed expression on his face.

"Doyle, I don't care." Russ said, looking into his eyes hard and then got a weird falling feeling in the pit of his stomach and felt as if he was falling backwards...


	12. Chapter 12: Torture and Feathers

Chapter 12

(AN: Okay, from now on no more showing of accent pronunciation unless its cockney like the Randy thing "be'er bein' the 'ost o' the trials fer givin' out life." But not Fred's 'ah' instead of 'I' cos, you know, I've been told that that's annoying. But when Fred appears right here she has no accent she had more of an 'Illyria' voice.)

Russ woke up on a cold, hard concrete slab. He groaned and tried to get up but then realised slowly, due to headache, he had chains on his hands and feet that tied him down to the slab. He tested the chains by tugging them but they held fast.

"That won't work." A voice said from out of the shadows as Russ gave up.

"I figured." He muttered under his breath. Then he recognised the voice and forgot everything else, "Fred?" Fred stepped into the dim light that surrounded Russ. He couldn't help but smile widely and never once did the thought enter his mind that it was impossible for Fred to be there and that it might be one of the tests. But I'm not telling, mouth is zipped and soldered shut. Ouch painful, okay over it.

"Hello Russ." She said coldly and then ripped his shirt open in one movement. Then she turned her attention to something that was just out of Russ' view point but he didn't care about that. I mean, it's Fred! Even though the whole ripping thing was a bit out of character...

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you here." Russ almost gushed but Fred just ignored him and kept busy with whatever she was keeping busy with. With this a little of the happiness drained away and some of the reality came back.

"So are you going to get me out? Or just mess around with-" Russ stopped suddenly when he lifted up his head to look at what she was messing around with and he saw it. She was 'messing around' with a table with many painful looking torture devices including many a scalpel and screwdrivers and implements that I don't even think have names but look extremely 'owie'.

"Fred?" Russ asked, worried that the love of his life was extremely interested in the array of sharp, blunt and clamping things in front of her. Fred held up one of the sharper scalpels to the light and examined it. Then, satisfied, she looked down at Russ.

"This might hurt a bit." She said, voice so completely emotionless that Russ knew it was going to hurt a lot. Then she started to slowly, and shallowly, cut from the top of his ribcage down his chest...

Now unless you are a very sadistic and twisted person you probably won't want a description of the following hours so I will go with you unsadistic and untwisted people because I, of course, am not sadistic nor twisted. Alright I'll just vaguely describe what happened besides the cutting and the poking and the twisting and all those other sadistic things.

"Why?" Russ asked hoarsely while Fred examined the tray of mostly blood stained instruments, looking for her next. Then she found it. And believe me if you saw it, it would give you nightmares for years. Fred glanced down at Russ.

"Because I don't love you Russ. How could I love you?" Then she got to work and as she did, this time not all of the wounds healed up completely. And Russ cries were even louder than usual.

"No... You told me. You told me you-" He protested weakly as she put away that instrument, for now.

"I lied." She said and then picked up her all time favourite, the flame thrower. She loved to watch the skin curl back from it, it seemed. That or she really liked the colour black. He howled as she put the flame onto his skin and this time the burns didn't heal at all. Russ started quivering as he felt the beginning stages of his body starting to shut down automatically from the heavy damage.

"Why?" He asked, barely a whisper as Fred picked up another torture device.

"Because you're so pitiful and weak. Like a little puppy trying to get a home by latching onto the nearest thing it can. Well, Russ, I think it's about time I extract you from me. Don't you think?" Fred asked and then held the instrument in front of Russ' eyes. It definitely was an extractor. Then, before the 'extractor' even touched his skin, wounds started to appear on his face that had been from previous times. They kept coming until he was pretty much covered in them.

"So Russ, still want to save me?" Fred looked at him with an evil expression on her face that had never been on her face before and Russ was scared of what she had become. But then he came through.

"Yes."

Everything was white. Okay that's slightly overrated. It looked like the white room except there was a lack of walls and ceilings. A storm loomed overhead and Russ looked up at the black sky. It looked like it would rain any minute but it also looked like it had never rained before. Lovely, clouds threatening, that wasn't too ominous about the last trial. Russ' trials seemed so much more complex than Angel's, especially the settings. Compare the Black Void to the medieval scenes he went through. But then the complexness was probably because of the fact that it was in his mind and his mind could fabricate these complex settings. Well, unused potential goes a long way. (Cough, cough, I just couldn't help but make a little bit of fun at Russ there. Hehe, unused potential.)

Russ realised all of his wounds from the previous test was gone but he could still feel the pain. He knew now that even though he knew it had been a test that was it. His powers were back to the way that they were before. He could no longer regenerate. Sure he could still morph (explanation later) but that was about it. Luckily he wasn't left with all of the wounds from before because otherwise he wouldn't have been able to lift a speck of dust without hurting himself fatally.

"Hello Russ." A booming voice echoed in the white room and Russ spun around, trying to locate it.

"Hiya big boomy voice. Nice weather isn't it? Am I going to be tortured again?" Russ said, not too keen about the torturing, and the voice chuckled.

"Don't worry Russ, this one is different." The voice replied and Russ looked around.

"Well then." He muttered to himself and turned to see a single white feather float down from the sky. He looked up at the approximate spot that it had fallen from and saw another float down. And then another. And then another. And they got faster and faster until it was raining feathers. Russ just looked around in disbelief. I mean, feathers! Seriously.

Russ picked up one of the feathers and studied it carefully. It kinda reminded him of this other feather that he'd seen a while back. He struggled to remember and got the faintest memory and then... He remembered and his eyes widened.

"Oh shit." He said and looked up before starting to sprint off in a direction away from the origin of the feathers and the main place where it was raining. He continued to run for his life when the feathers started to get heavier and heavier. They were up to his calves now and he slugged it out, trying desperately to get away. He glanced behind him and saw the pile getting bigger and bigger. It looked a little like when a tsunami threatened and you were just standing on the beach with your mouth open. Except with feathers and Russ was sprinting.

Then it stopped all of a sudden. But Russ didn't stop running. He pumped his legs hard as he could which resulted in him almost wading through the feathers which were up to his knees. He felt wind on the back of his neck and ducked quickly, narrowly missing getting his head taken off his shoulders by a flying projectile'.

The 'projectile' stopped in front of him and he could only stare. The words 'arch angel' came to mind because if there were such things then this is certainly what they would look like. Standing, okay hovering, at 6'6" he had long brown hair that reached just past his shoulders and piercing green eyes. A long scar ran down his cheek and had a hybrid smirk-sneer on his face. The only clothing he had was clean, simple, linen cream pants. His chest was left bare and all muscly and wings came out of his back. The wings reached down to the back of his knees and were thick with long white feathers like the ones that had rained down earlier.

Russ had only heard of this 'arch angel' and that was the reason that he had ran when he saw the feathers coming down, it always rained feathers just before he came down from the sky. And Russ had also heard that he wasn't the sort of 'angel' you would want to be meeting in combat, he was extremely powerful. Like Russ, he possessed the energy to regenerate and, also like Russ, the energy to transform into anything that he chose to be. (Yes Russ can do this, person, animal, just about any living thing and it takes less energy than regenerating wounds because he doesn't regenerate when he morphs so...) But Russ wasn't too concerned about this, he was more concerned about the 3 foot long sword that the 'arch angel' was holding at his side.

"Hullo Gabriel." Russ said wearily. True, the name was cliché but, as Russ had learned, it was cliché because Gabriel was the 'arch angel' described in all the historical texts that mentioned 'arch angels'. And arch angel is in quotation marks because he isn't really any type of angel, just because of the wings that his favourite body had they thought he was but the un-angelic manner that he had made them rethink that. Therefore, the term arch angel was born.

"Russet." Gabriel inclined his head at the half demon respectfully.

"So you're the last test." Russ said.

"I'm the last test." Gabriel said, opening his arms slightly.

"I was wondering when the 'mystical' part of my heroism would bite me on the ass." Russ said, his voice showing his tiredness. He was tired ahead of the battle, anticipating what would happen.

"Well I'm ready," Gabriel said and floated down to the ground and then morphed into a huge silver wolf, the sword morphing with him, "And I'm about to bite." He said, a growl in the back of his throat. Russ sighed heavily and turned into a brown wolf of roughly the same size at the same time. Okay, if you could've seen the morphs it would've been really cool. Gabriel's sword basically melted into his hand and then the silveriness of the sword coats his whole body and he starts to grow fur and a snout and his arms and legs change. With Russ his brown jacket flapped up and hung in mid air over his head for a second and when he sighed it suddenly fell on his head and the whole package shrinks to the ground and then hair sprouts and form is made and in a second he was a wolf, the transformation being much quicker than Gabriel's.

"Let's do this." Russ said, the growl in the back of his throat similar to Gabriel's only less 'growly' and more 'woofy'. At the same time they both leaped at each other and crashed into each other at the same time as a bolt of lightning flashed in the distance.

The two wolves fell to the ground and rolled around, fighting for dominance, clawing and biting each other. Gabriel was on top and it was a battle of the wills as he tried to reach Russ's neck with his teeth. Russ won and kicked him off to the side and he slid for a few metres before Russ pounced on him. They continued to struggle with each other for a few minutes, blood specking their fur and matting it down.

Russ had Gabriel pinned beneath him for a few seconds but then Gabriel threw him up into the air and he spiralled into the sky. After one whole spiral he morphed in mid air into a griffin and flapped his big wings strongly, making feathers go flying everywhere beneath him.

Gabriel looked up and saw this so he quickly launched himself into the air and morphed into a griffin too. They kept their distance, sizing each other up. Gabriel kept his silver colour and Russ his brown only Russ was now a golden brown that would've shone brilliantly if there was a sun and Gabriel was now a bluish grey that was similar to an eye colour.

Gabriel made the first move and charged forward, his wings flapping hard, and Russ started to charge towards Gabriel with similar passion and they clashed in mid air. Their claws tore at each other and their beaks did much the same work. Within seconds their feathers were stained with blood and one of Russ' eyes was closed because it had been so damaged and one of Gabriel's wings was broken. Russ pushed him towards the ground and flew backwards and upwards away from him.

As Gabriel fell he felt his second wing break beneath his body and he couldn't help but howl. Russ hovered for a few seconds and then charged at the form of the injured griffin. Before Russ hit him he morphed back into his original 'arch angel' form and just before Russ hit the ground he pulled up and morphed back into his own form and fell onto the ground, knees bent and hand on the ground.

He walked over to Gabriel who lay on the ground bleeding and moaning softly. Russ looked down at him with blood getting in the way of his view plus his eyes was so swollen he couldn't open it. His face had a big gash across it and blood stained his shirt visibly. Russ looked down at Gabriel who looked up at him in return, green eyes showing his pain.

Gabriel coughed harshly and then spit up some blood. He sneered up at Russ.

"You going to," He coughed, "Finish the job?" Russ looked down at him, fire in his eyes. Probably the after affects of the massive fight they just had. And although he knew he would regret it later on, he broke every rule that was ever established regarding fights between 'morphing' demons. He held out his hand to Gabriel.

"It's not what Fred would've done." Russ said as Gabriel grabbed Russ' hand and Russ lifted him up.

"What Fred would've done... You're doing this for Fred." Gabriel said and winced slightly as Russ put Gabriel's arm around his shoulders to help him to stand in the feathers.

"I do everything for Fred. Gabe, my whole world revolves around her." Russ said and steadied Gabriel against him.

"And it's going to continue to do just that." Gabriel said and Russ looked at him, confused. Gabriel continued, "Mercy isn't overrated Russ. It's part of being a hero."

"And I just passed the third test?" Russ asked and Gabriel nodded.

"Well it wasn't exactly stakes flying at me..." Russ said with a grin on his face.

"Russ." Gabriel said seriously and Russ turned to look at him.

"What is it Gabe?"

"Don't take this lightly, you are a hero. You just proved it. Heroism isn't all about killing demons and beating the bad guy. It's about seeing things in people and being compassionate as well. And that's what you are Russet. And nowadays we don't have enough of those heroes."

"Thanks Gabriel." Russ said, really meaning it and Gabriel allowed himself a smile.

"In case we never see each other again... Thankyou and, you're the real deal." Gabriel said and Russ smiled at him widely.

"You're welcome Gabriel. And thanks." Russ grinned and then everything faded out...


	13. Chapter 13: It's For You

Chapter 13

Russ found himself standing in the antechamber and Fred ran up to him and hugged him fiercely. He was caught by surprise, and maybe a touch of pain, by the hug that came out of nowhere but kept his balance and hugged her back strongly. Glad to be back was an understatement.

"Oh my god." Fred said as she saw him when they separated slowly and he winced at this. She studied his bruises and wounds with the eyes of a worried, concerned and fretful lover. He leaned on her slightly, not exactly steady on his feet, and she took his weight without a word. The look of worry, concern and fret was enough 'tutting' for Russ.

"What happened?" Fred asked and Russ winced again. Somehow he knew that the answer wouldn't thrill her.

"I was beaten up by the best fighter in this dimension." Russ said, wincing at how good and pro it made him sound that he'd survived but also at how weird it sounded. Oh yeah, he was also wincing at the pain.

"What? Why didn't you heal?" Fred asked, her big brown eyes studying his face which was still in the process of swelling and turning various colours.

"Not sure. Randy?" Russ said, turning to Randy who looked like a deer caught in headlights. Fred shifted her attention to him too and he looked between the two of them with this look that just said how sure he was that he was about to get hit many times.

"Well... I believe that the spell will wear off in due time." Randy said, shifting uncomfortably from the attention.

"There was a spell?" Fred asked incredulously.

"That would explain the belief that it was Fred..." Russ muttered to himself simultaneously.

"I'll just grant those second chances, shall I?" Randy said and walked quickly over to Angel and Cordy, who was now lying on the table with Angel holding her down.

"One for the road." Cordy muttered under her breath and Russ panicked.

"Hurry up Randy," Russ winced as he moved as quickly as he could to Cordy's side, "She's almost done." Russ looked her over, concerned.

"Very well." Randy placed his hands on her temples and closed his eyes. After a few seconds he re opened them and Cordy immediately stopped struggling and seemed to go peaceful as she relaxed visibly on the table. Well as relaxed as you can be on a hard table. Randy moved away and Russ and Fred went with him. Angel stopped holding her down and moved his arms to either side of her. She opened her eyes slowly and looked up to see Angel.

"Angel?" She asked, blinking as if not really believing that Angel was hovering above her.

"Right here Cordelia." Angel replied, eyes shining brightly. Maybe the first time that that had happened and Cordy smiled widely up at him. She wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled herself up for a kiss that matched the passion in their 'You're Welcome' kiss. They separated slowly and Cordy bit softly on her bottom lip.

"Hi." She said quietly and Angel smiled down at her.

"Hi." He returned softly and a small smile appeared on her face.

Russ, Fred and Randy witnessed this exchange from a distance far away enough to be classified as a 'comfortable' distance from the two. Russ kept giving Randy looks that prompted him to think that this was the time to give Fred her own second chance. Apparently the torture and then the fight to the almost death had made him have a tougher exterior. But this time Randy didn't need too much prodding to do it and he motioned for Fred to step forward.

"This way please miss." Fred obeyed and Randy put his hands on her temples and closed his eyes. Randy opened his eyes suddenly.

"Oh." He said and Russ shot him a look.

"What is it?" Russ asked, sighing slightly, his shoulders sagging knowing that his sacrifice was being defaulted.

"It's for you." Randy said, avoiding Russ' gaze.

"What are you-?" Russ was cut off by being flung backwards. He hit the ground with his head hard and was still. Fred rushed to him and Angel and Cordy stopped what they were doing to rush over too. Fred looked up at Randy with a look that was worse than all of Russ' looks put together.

"What happened?" She asked and Randy looked at her before taking in a breath and beginning his reason.

"The Powers wanted a word." Randy said, trying to pick the right words so that he didn't get into too much trouble.

"About me?" Fred asked and Randy nodded silently. Fred's gaze dropped and she decided to start worrying about Russ overtime.

Russ groaned loudly and then tried to get up slowly before giving up and lying back down in the sand-like ground. He looked around and knew exactly where he was and groaned again.

"How are ya Russ?" A very familiar voice asked him that was out of view and he groaned again.

"Great." He grunted and then swung himself into a sit up. He sat down on the sand and skimmed his hand across the sand, "Just great."

"That's good. Really." Russ was reassured when he shot an unbelieving look at the person who said that it was good that he was great.

"Alright, I was being sarcastic." Russ said, pushing himself up with one hand on the ground.

"Oh really? Well I... wasn't." The person finished lamely and Russ decided to 'cut through the crap' in a matter of speaking.

"Okay, what's going on here Doyle?" Russ asked and Doyle looked at him with an 'I don't know what you're talking about' expression on his face.

"Nothing. Okay something. Fine, the Powers don't want to let Fred live." Doyle said and then realised how that sounded. But Russ was too withdrawn into his own thoughts to notice Doyle's ramblings that continued on for quite a bit until Russ spoke again.

"The first trial... That was true?" Russ asked and Doyle nodded.

"That was me. And, it wasn't the first trial. Just me."

"So when I said I didn't care that wasn't me passing a trial was it?"

"No, no. That was me running out of credit."

"Oh," Russ nodded and then stopped and stared at him, "Are we talking about the same thing? Cos I think you're thinking of your phone bill."

"We are. But I get energy credit, see? Y'know since I wasted a lot on getting me a few drinks the Powers kind of limited my usage. And getting into your head was a tough thing, lots of energy. So, I ran out."

"Okay..."

"So how bout we get to the reason why you're here." Doyle said, doing his own cutting through the crap.

"So you're trying to get me to let Fred be a Power." Russ stated and Doyle nodded. Russ sighed heavily and sat down on the Chair.

"Before you start the whole 'I don't care' thing think about this. Maybe Fred might... want to be a Power." Doyle said, unsure about his safety after saying it but he needn't worry. Russ was too involved in the thinking process.

"Why would she want to be a Power?" Russ asked and Doyle shrugged.

"Why does anyone want anything? People are complicated and unpredictable."

"So you reckon she really wants to be a Power?" Russ asked.

"Yeah I do. I mean, life is good when you're a Power. Uncomplicated, you have control over many champions who are at your beck and call..."

"And why would Fred want that? Do you even know Fred? She's not some power crazed lunatic. She's sweet and beautiful and smart and funny and represents everything that is good and pure."

"Exactly. How much more good and pure can you get than the Powers? She was destined to be a Power from the moment she was born. To live in a hell dimension yet still be good and pure, to meet a hero and help him. Can you think of anyone more qualified to be a Power?" To this Russ was silent because he knew the answer. Then he came up with his last defence.

"Not to sound too self centred here, but she loves me. And Fred isn't the type to leave someone she loves behind."

"She could help millions by becoming a Power. Do you really think she'll choose you over helping millions of innocents?"

"Truly? Yes. I mean, even if I told her not to she would. Cos she's that kind of person. Then again, I would do exactly the same thing. Look, there are already Powers up there and they're not doing too bad. I think that Fred could do better but the world isn't meant to run better. The world is what the people living in it make it. Not what the people watching over make it."

"That's what you think?" Doyle asked, a derogative tone in his voice. There was something different about him but Russ let it go and just concerned himself with the question.

"Yeah Doyle, it is." Russ said, not thinking about his answer before delivering it.

"Well you're wrong. And it doesn't matter what you say. Fred is going to be a Power. With or without your approval."

"So... Are you asking me to let go of the best thing that has ever happened to me in any of the hundreds of lifetimes that I've gone through while working for the Powers?" Russ asked, almost quivering with rage.

"I'm not asking you," A fire appeared in Doyle's eyes and he continued on the border of yelling, "I'm ordering you. You still work for me Brown and nothing's going to change that. So when I tell you to let go," Doyle somehow managed to loom over the seated half demon, "Let go!" Russ actually winced in front of Doyle who had managed to turn scary, looming and boss like.

"No." Russ said quietly but also firmly back at Doyle and Doyle seemed to implode.

"You don't get to say 'no' to me boy." Doyle said and he trapped Russ in the chair by putting each of his hands on the side of him going back to the back of the chair. Russ leaned back in his chair and looked extremely uncomfortable at their current position. Then he swallowed it and got his own fire.

"And you don't get to call me 'boy'." He said as he brought his face forward to Doyle's own so that he was looking him square in the eyes and his nose was about an inch from Doyle's. Doyle snickered and took his hands from the chair. He turned away from Russ and the chair and let loose a chuckle.

"Nothing ever changes. Still as fiery as usual." Doyle said and swung his fist at Russ as he turned, connecting with his jaw. Russ' face went flying sideways and it swayed to the side, incredibly loose. He slowly managed to get some of the feeling back in his cheek and he felt like it was on fire. He turned slightly to see Doyle standing there, not looking like he'd exerted himself at all when he'd made Russ probably end up with permanent brain damage and a concussion.

Russ looked at Doyle and blinked slowly. Maybe it was just his brain damage but Doyle didn't look like Doyle anymore. He was now a big, built, strong looking guy who looked quite unremarkable. He was like one of those guys that you'd forget their face immediately after they passed you in the street. But this face was so familiar to Russ.

"C'mon boy. Don't tell me you can't remember me?" The man asked and sneered at Russ. Then Russ remembered and looked at him, his head swaying slightly.

"Jesus Christ..."


	14. Chapter 14: Javert

Chapter 14

Russ fell onto the ground heavily and spat a wad of blood out. He turned over and coughed again. The man stood over him, taking care of his hand that seemed to have a speck of Russ' blood on it. He wiped it with his handkerchief coolly. He looked down at Russ without a look of disdain or hate or pity. He was expressionless. Maybe that was what scared Russ the most, the utter lack of any expression at all except anger and he didn't even use anger when lashing out. Apparently beating people to a bloody pulp was his outlet.

"Who are you?" Russ asked, sounding slightly breathless. Probably due to the lack of complete consciousness.

"My name is Javert."

"Javert..." Russ said to himself and saw a flash of images that made no sense to him, "I know you..."

"Why of course," Javert spoke joyfully, as if pleased by Russ' knowledge of him, "I was the one who rescued you from that human hellhole when you were a young boy."

"I knew it. It was you."

Russ was about five years old and he was sitting in the living room floor colouring in the book with a pack of crayons. His mom looked over him from the couch while reading a trashy magazine that made up rumours about stars because the authors probably hated their own lives too much. Or that was what his mother said anyways.

There was a crash at the front door and a tall silhouette appeared in its place. Russ looked up as the silhouette stepped forward. His mother quickly stood in front of Russ who got up and clung onto his mom's leg and peered around her legs.

The tall man stepped forward into the light of the house and Russ saw his face clearly. He quivered behind his mother's legs and she tried to comfort him with a hand on his shoulder.

"It's time." The man said and Russ' mother cried out.

"No! No. There is no way." She cried at him and he just approached her almost automatically. He backhanded her. Hard. She fell and Russ went to her side immediately. The man picked up Russ easily and slung him over his shoulder. Russ beat at his shoulder with his small fists crying out for his mother who lay there holding her cheek and crying for him.

As the man turned away she swung her leg around so that the man fell heavily on the ground and grunted. Russ' mother caught Russ easily and got up and went to sprint for it but the man grabbed her by the leg and pulled her to the ground. She cried out as she fell and the man ripped Russ from her arms after a struggle and then walked away with him in his hands leaving Russ' mother on the floor almost unconscious with a spilt lip and a fast swelling up eye and cheek.

"You bastard." Russ spat at the man who had dragged him away from his mother when he was five years old. He swung his beat up body up, energy renewed by the knowledge of Javert's past that had collided with his. He stood up and swayed slightly as he glared at Javert.

"Now, now boy. No need to mouth off." Apparently Javert had decided to take a fatherly stand in front of Russ and backhanded him across the face. Russ felt time pass slowly for him for a few seconds as his neck snapped to the side by the impact. Javert was as strong as he looked. Russ staggered and held a hand to his cut lip and looked at Javert with slightly blurry vision.

"So this is how you make me want to give up Fred is it?" Russ asked, knowing well that it clearly wasn't.

"Well, no..." Javert grinned widely at his own 'initiative', "I was just solving a problem for them before they needed to deal with it."

"Wow, they must be really grateful." Russ said sarcastically.

"You'd think that wouldn't you? Ah well, another day, another obstacle cleared." Javert smiled at him calmly and took out a big, scary looking knife out of his jacket. He looked at Russ who was vaguely registering the knife through a haze of blood that seemed to be clouding his vision.

"You will be serving a higher power Russet, just think of that. With your death will come a new dawn. And there will be no pain, or suffering, or poverty, or hunger, or depression. Just think of that." Javert said with this really crazy, scary glint in his eye.

"I'm thinking." Russ said and eyed the knife and wondered how hard it would be to take it off him in his current state. Then he decided that there was no way he was getting out of this alive. Unless...

"Javert. Didn't we tell you? The place for psycho vigilante was already taken." A voice said behind Javert and he whirled around. Russ peered around the burly guy and saw one person who he was so incredibly thankful to see that he would've gotten down on his knees and kissed his feet.

"Well, if it isn't the short Irish messenger boy." Javert said, sighing and rolled his eyes.

"Hey," Doyle said and held a finger up, "I am not short." And then, with no further ado, Javert was flung across the room into the far off distance of the void.

"Wow cool trick Doyle," Russ said and turned to Doyle, "You are Doyle, aren't you?"

"Yeah Russ, it's me."

"Well, neat trick. Reckon you could teach me? I mean, right now I'm kinda devoid of the telekinetic powers." Russ asked, goofy smile on his face and Doyle pretended to contemplate it.

"Uh... No, but I can give you back your powers." Doyle said.

"I have powers now? Jeez, that makes me sound like a superhero." Russ cracked, apparently putting aside the horrendous wounds he had all over his body. Doyle laughed at the joke but went back to business fast.

"I don't have too long. Your mission, it's a go."

"It is?"

"Yes, blow the cover. Explain everything. And don't let him do the whole 'I don't deserve it' thing cos then 'you know who up there' is gonna give up on the poor sod."

"Hey, he's your best sod. He survived an onslaught from Wolfram and Hart for crying out loud."

"Yeah, but 'you know who' is very impatient and unless Angel accepts that his destiny has rewards in it too, then 'you know who' is gonna order immediate withdrawal." Doyle said, his face extremely serious now. Russ sighed, he knew it was going to be a battle but he was accepting the challenge, and nodded.

"Don't worry Doyle, he'll accept the rewards. I mean, did you see the way he was with Cor-uh... Corey his new friend that likes the sunlight." Russ tried to cover up his slip, he knew about the history between Cordy and Doyle and didn't want to bring up the whole hurt thing. Okay, so the cover wasn't that great. In fact, it was crap. But he wasn't going to get any bad stuff from Doyle it seemed.

"It's okay Russ." Doyle said and smiled this saintly smile that would've made anyone feel all gooey inside. Looking at that smile was like looking into heaven. Russ was starting to understand exactly what working at the right hand of the Powers entailed.

"So when I get down there I'll have my powers back right?" Russ asked, hey he just wanted to make sure.

"Yeah Russ." Doyle said and grinned at Russ' impatience.

"You promise?" Russ asked in such an immature tone that Doyle couldn't help but widen his grin at him.

"Pinkie swear." Doyle said and held out his pinkie. They shook pinkies and there was a flash of light. At least in Russ' head there was a flash of light.

He immediately sat up and almost cracked heads with Angel who was previously looking at him worriedly.

"OW!" They both said simultaneously and Russ sat up rubbing his head and Angel went over to Cordy who inspected his forehead and, finding it fine, kissed it.

"So Angel, you ready for that soul securing?" Russ said with Fred doing to Russ pretty much what Cordy was doing to Angel. Russ rubbed his forehead and looked at Angel with a part pained expression, part annoyed expression and something that no one else in the room could discern except for Randy who we have completely forgotten for now.

At this point everyone in the room froze except for Randy and Russ. Randy looked at Russ.

"You are going to secure his soul down here?" Randy asked incredulously and Russ just shot him a withering look.

"Well, you see Randy can't exactly go anywhere since those stairs you can randomly call haven't been randomly callen so, you know, kinda trapped down here with nowhere to go unless you call those steps." Russ said and Randy's eyebrows shot up at the sudden and unexpected attack.

"Okay, okay, touché." Randy said and Russ shot him a look showing exactly how he felt about everything that he had to go through in the last, what seemed to him, hours. Of course to the rest of them it all spanned over fifteen, twenty minutes.

Anyway, Randy quickly made the stairs appear and Angel and Cordy were the first to leave, Fred followed them after some persuasion and promises from Russ that he would be right there. Russ turned to Randy and spent half a minute just looking at him. Eventually Randy cracked under the pressure.

"Wot is it Russ?" Randy slipping into cockney and Russ just looked at him before replying.

"You know what's happening next." Russ didn't ask, he said it like a statement and Randy nodded. Russ nodded at that and looked at the ground.

"You've been a great friend Randy. Really. I know I give you shit sometimes but I really... Appreciate you." In any other situation Russ would've been a typical guy and overacted himself swallowing his pride and machoness before saying appreciate you but in this situation it was more a pause to search for the right word. And when he found it he said it without pulling a face or holding his breath or doing any of the other things that guys do when they act like idiots. And Randy saw that and it was the one thing that kept him from making a comment.

"Thankyou Russ. And, if I may ask, why are you acting as if you are going to die?" Randy asked, okay so he had to say something about the previous use of 'appreciate' but he kept back things that were a lot worse because of Russ' seriousness. Russ sighed heavily, time to divulge information that he'd just learned.

"I'm not going to die, you know that. But, you know, you're never going to see me again." Russ said and Randy nodded, he knew that. And he knew why.

"You're moving back up?" Randy asked and Russ nodded sadly.

"Yeah."

"What about Fred?" Randy asked and Russ winced as if Randy had punched him in an already bleeding and open wound.

"She'll forget, like all the others." Russ said, not liking anything that he was saying.

"I'm sorry Russ, I know you love her." Randy said and Russ just nodded and turned and walked up the stairs.

"Fred, hi." Russ said as soon as he reached the top of the stairs and they disappeared behind him. He said this almost guiltily, although she didn't know why he would be guilty. He drew her into a hug and she responded with an unsure smile on her face but a smile nevertheless.

"Hiya Russ." She replied and he drew her into a hug which also puzzled her, but which she responded to nevertheless. When they withdrew Russ grimaced at Fred, knowing that his actions were questionable.

"How bout we get out of here, eh? And when I say 'here' I do mean this abandoned, empty swimming pool." Russ said and Angel and Cordy were the first to climb out by using the ladder. Fred stayed behind with Russ and just looked at him.

"Are you okay?" She asked, even though he had returned to his nice guy, sarcastic humour state she knew something was wrong. But she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Great." Russ said flippantly and then saw that Fred wasn't going to drop it and took her hands in his and looked into her eyes. What he said next was reassuring to Fred and was the truth, but not all of it exactly and if Fred knew what he really meant behind the cryptic message then maybe she wouldn't have smiled afterwards and turned to go up the ladder.

"Everything will be fine. I promise. I'm gonna do my stuff on Angel and him and Cordy are gonna have a happily ever after. And us... I'll never leave you. Ever. Whatever happens I'm going to be right here, next to you. Even if we get separated I will _always_ come right back to you."


	15. Chapter 15: The Happy Ending Kinda

Chapter 15

They went to the alleyway that Russ and Angel first met. Or in other words the alleyway that Connor was born, the alleyway that was very close to the mystical hot spot in Caritas and the alleyway that the Beast had emerged. Russ took Angel aside, excusing themselves from the two ladies for a moment.

"What's wrong Russ?"

"Before I do anything, I need to do this. It's one of the... Well, let's just say it's needed for what I'm gonna do next. Without it there's no deal." Russ said and then studied Angel before asking, "Okay?" Angel nodded, not quite sure what was coming up next.

"I'm just gonna get right into it then. You've been fighting for what? Years now? And you've always hidden behind the excuse that you did a lot of damage in your day. That you could never make up for what you'd done in another hundred years. Well I got a question for you Angel, how many times have you saved the world? Too many to count on one hand. Well saving the world kinda tips the balance in your favour. You've saved the world. That means that you saved every single person living on this great world of ours with it. One fell swoop is really the world for this. You've saved billions of people. Many times over! You never thought that you saving the world might mean something?"

"Well I mainly helped." Angel said, the concept that saving the world meant saving everyone who was living on it had never really occurred to him. And now he felt like his brooding material was being taken away from him by the half demon in front of him with a 'speech' face on.

"It doesn't matter. This is a sharing situation, everyone gets the praise!"

"Then if it means so much then why don't I have redemption?"

"Because this isn't about the Powers forgiving you. This is about you forgiving you. I know it sounds corny but it's true."

"But I can't. Every person I killed, I felt their lives pouring into me. I might have saved the world's population but it isn't as if I ever made that strong a connection with them."

"I know what you mean, so how about some help?" Russ asked and Angel nodded uncertainly, not knowing what he was agreeing to. Russ reached out with his hand and touched Angel's forehead lightly with two fingers. Angel's eyes closed automatically and they began moving around under the lids like someone REMming (heh, cool word). What Angel was seeing was little snippets of all those good things that people did because he saved them. Kinda like what Cordy had at the end of Season one except instead of pain it was happiness and good (okay, how corny is that).

When Angel opened his eyes you could tell he'd changed. Maybe it was the way he stood or something in his eyes but there was a definite change in him. He looked Russ and Russ knew that it had done the job. Mr Brood King was finally ready to hand over his crown. Maybe what he had shown him had made him a touch naïve about how much good there was in the world but, knowing Angel it hadn't. It had restored some of the naiveness that is required to have faith in the world and that all will be well in the end. Hey, we have to have some optimists in the world.

"Fred, Cordy," Russ called out to the two women, "Say hello to the new Angel. The one who's actually forgiven himself for all the bad stuff he did back in the Day."

"Oh my god, what did you do?" Cordy asked Russ, noticing straight away the change in Angel as did Fred. They approached him in wonder at the fact that he didn't have a broody expression on anymore. He looked quite plain without it. And weird.

"I made him a naïve optimist. Or put him on the path anyway." Russ grinned as he put an arm around Fred's waist. Cordy continued to inspect Angel as he stood there, calmness turning to uncertainty as she walked around him, scrutinizing him.

"Good job Russ. Really, can't tell the old Angel and the new one apart. So where are you hiding ours?"

"Ha ha." Angel laughed sarcastically and Cordy looked at him with fake surprise.

"It can talk too!" She exclaimed and squealed shortly after when Angel gathered her into his arms claiming that he would give her something to exclaim about. This left Fred and Russ just look on smiling and laughing like parents, or older people who were chuckling about the antics of younger ones. And in a way they were older. I mean, Fred and Cordy were about the same age. Russ however, was oh I'd say billions of years older than Angel but I'll be getting to that in a minute.

"Wow, I didn't think that making Angel forgive himself would make him so..." Russ searched for a word to describe Angel's behaviour but came up blank.

"Un-Angel-like?" Fred offered and Russ nodded and continued to look on at the two. Then he turned to Fred and just looked at her. She turned to look at him, not sure why she was suddenly getting all of the attention. The look on Russ' face was one of love and something else that Fred couldn't quite make out.

"What?" She asked, blushing slightly from the sudden attention, not able to look at Russ.

"Nothing it's just... You are so beautiful." Russ said, which caused Fred's blush to deepen.

"Thankyou." She said quietly and Russ smiled the same saintly smile that Doyle smiled at him before.

"You are so welcome." He said, emphasising every word. This didn't help Fred's blush to go away. He looked deep in her eyes and said, "I love you." It wasn't so much the words as the way he said it that blew Fred away.

"I love you too. I love you so much." Fred said and threw herself into Russ' arms. He gladly held her to him and breathed in the scent that was purely Fred. He closed his eyes and smiled subconsciously. This beautiful moment was interrupted by Cordy and Angel when Cordy cleared her throat. Russ and Fred separated and looked at the two who were waist to waist, arms wrapped around each other.

"Sorry to disturb the sickeningly sweet couple." Cordy said, grinning at the two who suddenly became self conscious.

"I'm sorry guys but I was just curious. Russ, with the whole forgiving myself thing, did that have a purpose or was it just one of those feel good exercises?" Angel asked, trying as hard as possible to seem like the innocent one.

"It did have a purpose, so sorry to keep you waiting Angel. Just trying to get a break to gather all my powers." Russ stood there for a few seconds, looking off into space with a look of mock concentration on his face and then he looked back at Angel, "Okay, got it. I'm all ready to go. Let's just hope you are."

Angel ignored the possible implications of the last sentence. He was going in without a clue of what was happening next but hey, that's how life is isn't it? Russ let go of Fred and gave her hand a quick squeeze and gave her one last longing look before walking towards Angel. Angel separated himself from Cordy but continued to hold her hand.

"Alright now Angel, just relax all the muscles in your body. No tensing cos that's gonna be hell for you later." Angel nodded and shook himself out, still holding Cordy's hand. Russ noticed this and sighed before intervening between the 'sickeningly sweet' couple as Cordy had put it before.

"Sorry Angel, this is a strictly solo event. Sorry Cor, but if you're hanging on... Well it scares me what might happen." Russ said, feeling much like the big mean guy who broke up the nice couple that everyone loved. But the two surrendered the touch after a second of looking at each other and without any protestations.

"Before I do anything Angel," Russ said when Angel had stepped in front of Russ, about an arm's length away, "I just want to say, job well done. You've done a lot of good in your time. Whistler would be proud if he was here to see you."

"Thanks Russ. How did you know-?" Angel started and Russ cut in.

"We used to be best mates." Russ explained and Angel did the whole 'ohhhh' thing. Then everything went down to business.

That was when things started getting interesting. Russ closed his eyes and concentrated. He started to chant something that Fred recognised from the bible (okay, not knowing if she would I just had to have someone, besides Angel, recognising that it came from the bible) and then he raised his right hand just above Angel's heart.

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight o Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heat be acceptable in Your sight o Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight o Lord." And so on, you get the idea. This surprised Angel as he didn't think that the bible had anything to do with his soul and he didn't think that his soul was there either. Then the next thing shocked Angel. Green light began _pouring_ out of Russ hand and went into Angel's chest.

Angel threw his head back as he felt something similar to an electric shock pour through his body. Cordy could see the green light washing over his body and beginning to emanate from it. Fred was caught watching Angel with the same fascination but then when her attention turned to Russ she was shocked. Russ had begun chanting the psalm through gritted teeth as if it was taking every atom in his body to keep the green light coming out of his hand and going into Angel's body.

Angel cried out and sank to his knees and Russ followed Angel with his hand and Fred could see the strain become more and more obvious. Russ was struggling to get out the psalm through gritted teeth and sunk to his knees so that he and Angel were level. Then it became too much for him to only force out the power with one hand and he raised both his hands and urged the last of the green light out of his body and into Angel's.

When the last of it had left Russ' and gone into Angel, Angel just looked at Russ with this puzzled expression and then collapsed sideways. Russ looked at the unconscious Angel and then fell to his side, but still hung onto his consciousness. Fred immediately dropped at his side and held him in her hands. He looked up at her, his eyes searching for her face, probably because he was so tired that everything was swimming in front of him.

"Fred." He said and grimaced.

"What-?" Fred was pretty much lacking in words and Russ began to explain everything as his vision was starting to fade and he felt his grip on reality slip.

"Fred. I need you to listen to what I'm going to say next. It's really important. I'm not a half demon who works for the Powers, I am one of the Powers. Up till a little while ago I didn't know this, Doyle 'reminded' me the last time I was out getting a 'call'(when they pinkie swore). What I did to Angel wasn't soul securing, it was giving him life. He's a living, breathing human being now and this is what the Powers have granted him. He's been released from his duty and is now invited to walk, talk and live like a normal human. It may be hard for him to accept at first but you've got to make him understand that he's done all he can do." Russ paused as he groaned, "I haven't got long left before I have to leave."

"Leave?" Fred asked, her eyes widening.

"I have to go back to the other two Powers. My job here is done."

"What? No. Russ you can't leave. What about the happy ending?"

"That belongs to Angel and Cordy now, you and I have a little more to go before we get ours." Russ said as he took a deep breath, trying to hold onto reality. Or this reality anyway.

"Why not now?" Fred asked, acting like a little girl but she didn't care. She didn't care that tears were springing into her eyes and that she felt like she couldn't breath. She only cared about here and now and... Russ.

"It's not our time. Please Fred," Russ' eyes started tearing up, "Don't make this any harder."

"But I love you." Fred insisted, tears threatening stronger than ever.

"And I love you too. More than you know. You're the one and only thing that I've loved since the beginning of time, when I was made." Russ said and Fred ignored the choice of words regarding how Russ 'came to be' and all she heard was that he loved her. He _loved_ her and he was leaving. Forever. Or that was what Fred thought anyway.

"Why did you go through the trials for me if you aren't even going to stay?" Fred asked, she knew she was grasping at straws but she would say anything, _anything_, to get him to stay.

"Because you deserve life. You had yours stolen from you." Russ said and he reached up to touch her cheek and she leaned into his touch.

"But how am I meant to go on without you? Knowing what we had, what we could've had." Fred said, a tear slipping past her barrier. And after that, there was no turning back.

"You won't. You won't remember me after I leave, its part of my powers." Russ said, his own tears beginning to flow.

"No! I don't want to. I won't. I'll never forget you Russ. I'll never forget anything." Fred said, tears thickening her voice and coming more rapidly down her cheeks.

"You've already started." Russ said sadly with a tear streaked face as he began to fade gradually.

"I love you." He said before he disappeared completely and Fred's tears started flowing freely until she couldn't remember why she was crying. And she couldn't remember why she felt so empty, as if she'd just lost something that meant the world to her. But she felt she had to say four words, even though she had no idea why.

"I love you too."

THE END (Or is it? Yeah it is, except for the epilogue...)

(AN: Okay guys, there is going to be a sequel. Yay! It's called 'Job Well Done II: Happily Ever After'. More explanation in the epilogue.)


	16. Epilogue

Epilogue

Fred Burkle walked into her small LA apartment that could more accurately be described as a studio divided into three rooms. She dropped her keys onto the nightstand and closed the chipped door gently behind her. She slipped off her shoes at the door before continuing down the short length of the carpeted corridor in her socks. After a metre or so she met the carpet of the lounge and sat down on the couch, thinking about things.

It had been a few months since Angel had gotten his human life and since then Fred had gotten a job teaching physics at UCLA. Ever since Angel had been redeemed she couldn't help feeling that feeling. That empty feeling. As if someone had made a huge impact on her life and then left. But no one had come into her life, or left it since the Wolfram and Hart incident. Not that she'd been around for the 'incident', she wasn't even in the country at the time. It was a bit blurry, her time outside LA, but she vaguely remembered something about trekking through a Brazilian forest.

She turned on the TV, not wanting to think about the 'feeling' anymore. 'Moulin Rouge' was on and, although she'd never seen it before, hearing Ewan McGregor say 'The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return' gave her this overwhelming feeling of déjà vu. She shifted uncomfortably and changed the channel.

The face of Ewan McGregor with a bedraggled, shaggy look was replaced with the scene of a hospital room. It was probably ER or Medical Investigation or something similar but even watching the hospital room containing a young man on the bed and a young woman sitting next to him gave her an even stronger sense of déjà vu. She switched off the TV and wondered what the hell was going on. Except she probably phrased it differently in her head.

Then there was a knock at the door and Fred, expecting to see either Angel, Cordy or both, got up and opened it. Instead of finding either of them she saw a handsome, young, twenty something man with brown hair with a tinge of red, turning it slightly auburn, and brown eyes with a tinge of yellow, turning them slightly hazel. When she opened the door fully he looked up at her and his face lit up with a wide white grin.

With that one action Fred felt her knees go weak. She didn't even know who this man was but the feeling that she should know him was really strong. And there was something else. She felt like there was a section of her brain that had been hidden previously and now she was discovering it.

"Fred, hi." He said, smile widening and Fred felt her own mouth stretch into a smile.

"Remember me?" He asked and then he stepped forward and cupped her chin with one hand and, now she was completely powerless to him, lowered his own face slowly down to hers and pressed his lips softly against hers. In a millisecond everything came flooding back to Fred. Everything, about Russ, about her own past. Everything.

"Russ!" Fred said and sat up in the bed, fully awake. She looked around her bedroom, lost for a second. Then she found herself and she felt her stomach sink.

"I remember." She said and a single tear made its way down her face, as if she was making up for the months that she didn't shed any tears for the loss of the love of her life. Then she said again, to no one particular in the room.

"I remember you Russ."

Far away in the Brazilian jungle a young man with brown-red hair and brown-yellow eyes hacked his way through the forest, searching for the nasty that had been giving the local champion of the Powers trouble. The young man grumbled as he picked a lizard off the sleeve of his cream, canvas, shirt. Then, all of a sudden, he stopped and got a feeling. _That_ feeling. The one that came every so often. The empty one. The yearning one. It passed after a second or so and the man stood there for a second before shaking it off and continuing through the jungle, the feeling staying in the back of his mind, not too far off.

He would deal with that after this.

And he promised himself that soon, the empty spot would be filled. Very soon.

(AN: Okay, there is gonna be a sequel to this that is revolving mostly around Fred and Russ. It's called Job Well Done II: Happily Ever After. And, hopefully, Fred and Russ will get their happy ending. Also there was quite a bit that wasn't explained in this story I just thought it would fit better in the second story cos that will be more about Russ and his past and about him being one of the Powers. And, of course, the love story between Fred and Russ. Obviously!)


End file.
